1980 BDO World Darts Championship

Post by **The Cat** » Thu Nov 25, 2010 12:35 pm

The 3rd year of the event saw the debut of the flamoyant Bobby George, complete with sequined shirt and candelabra. Bobby marched into the final at his first attempt taking the scalps of Dave Whitcombe, Leighton Rees and Cliff Lazerenko (who had deposed reigning champion John Lowe) on the way.
He met the Crafty Cockney Eric Bristow who had reached his first final at the 3rd attempt and George went down in a closely fought final, where he had his chance to take the match to a deciding set but had to stand and watch as Bristow claimed his first World title.

Results:

First Round
Cliff Lazarenko 2 V 0 Paul Gosling
Alan Grant 2 V 1 Allan Hogg
Dave Whitcombe 2 V 0 Len Heard
Tony Sontag 2 V 1 Rab Smith
Terry O Dea 2 V 1 Eric MacLean
Bill Lennard 2 V 1 Stefan Lord
Doug McCarthy 2 V 0 Conrad Daniels
Tony Clark (Wal) 2 V 0 Alan Glazier

2nd Round
Cliff Lazarenko 2 V 0 John Lowe
Ceri Morgan 2 V 0 Alan Grant
Bobby George 2 V 0 Dave Whitcombe
Leighton Rees 2 V 0 Tony Sontag
Tony Brown 2 V 0 Terry O Dea
Bill Lennard 2 V 0 Nicky Virachkul
Jocky Wilson 2 V 0 Doug McCarthy
Eric Bristow 2 V 0 Tony Clark (Wal)

Quarter Final
Cliff Lazarenko 3 V 1 Ceri Morgan
Bobby George 3 V 1 Leighton Rees
Tony Brown 3 V 0 Bill Lennard
Eric Bristow 3 V 0 Jocky Wilson

Semi Final
Bobby George 4 V 1 Cliff Lazarenko
Eric Bristow 4 V 3 Tony Brown

3rd Place
Tony Brown 2 V 0 Cliff Lazarenko

Final
Eric Bristow 5 V 3 Bobby George

Prize fund £15,000
Winners share £4,500

Post by **The Cat** » Thu Nov 25, 2010 12:36 pm

[youtube][/youtube]

Post by **spaceman70** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 10:28 pm

The 1980 Embassy World Darts Championship was the third year that the British Darts Organisation had staged a world championship. Again the field was 24 players, with the top seeds receiving a bye to the last 16 stage. For the second successive year the tournament was staged at Jollees Cabaret Club in Stoke-on-Trent.

Defending champion John Lowe, who had released a book The Lowe Profile just before the event suffered a surprise defeat 0-2 to Cliff Lazarenko saying afterwards "If you miss your doubles in this one, you must expect to go out."

Eric Bristow was then immediately installed as favourite to win the event and would meet another flamboyant character of the game in the final - Bobby George.

George, who wasn't even invited to the qualifiers the previous year appeared in a sequined shirt and when arriving on the stage was presented with a candelabra to complete a Liberace effect. He also made the early running in the final leading 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2.

The first six sets all went to a deciding leg until Bristow won the seventh 3-1 to establish a 4-3 set lead. In the next set at 2-2 in legs, George had a golden opportunity to level the match and take it to a decider but bust his score and nonchalantly threw his third dart into the board before putting his darts into his top pocket in anticipation of Bristow checking out to win the title. Bristow did so.

Total Prize fund was £15,000 (plus a £12,000 bonus for a nine-dart finish - not won)
Champion £4,500
Runner-up £2,000
Third Place £1,500
Fourth Place £1,000
Quarter finalists £500
2nd round losers £300
1st round losers £200

Cliff Lazarenko
Paul Gosling
Alan Grant
Allan Hogg
Dave Whitcombe
Len Heard
Tony Sontag
Rab Smith
Terry O Dea
Eric MacLean
Bill Lennard
Stefan Lord
Doug McCarthy
Conrad Daniels
Tony Clark
Alan Glazier
John Lowe
Ceri Morgan
Bobby George
Leighton Rees
Tony Brown
Nicky Virachkul
Jocky Wilson
Eric Bristow

THIRD PLACE MATCH (Best of 3 sets)
Tony Brown beat Cliff Lazarenko 2-0

Post by **GtotheF** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 11:05 pm

I'm being lazy but was this towards the end of Bill Lennards career?

Post by **spaceman70** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 11:12 pm

Adrian1969 wrote:I'm being lazy but was this towards the end of Bill Lennards career?

You are being very lazy, there should be an ' in Lennards!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Lennard

Post by **The Cat** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 11:18 pm

A lot of wikki is wrong mind.

Post by **spaceman70** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 11:34 pm

The Cat wrote:A lot of wikki is wrong mind.

A decent place to start mate, most copied from wiki can be wrong. Hopefully people like Dr. Eddie Norman MBE and Kendo, when I finally persuade him, will put us right and offer some insight into these players in different events?

SoS, regardless of who he is or what he says also must be talking from first hand experience, this can only be good for any forum.

Re: Kendo - I have been working on it since he lost all the info on the old site. I was put in an uncomfortable/awkward position myself but he like Rudy had given 6 years. They stayed the whole time, although some like Kebab King and others had already tired of the site their faith in forums is low to say the least

I was only 10 myself in 1980, but remember the final.

Post by **The Cat** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 11:59 pm

spaceman70 wrote:
The Cat wrote:A lot of wikki is wrong mind.
A decent place to start mate, most copied from wiki can be wrong. Hopefully people like Dr. Eddie Norman MBE and Kendo, when I finally persuade him, will put us right and offer some insight into these players in different events?

SoS, regardless of who he is or what he says also must be talking from first hand experience, this can only be good for any forum.

Re: Kendo - I have been working on it since he lost all the info on the old site. I was put in an uncomfortable/awkward position myself but he like Rudy had given 6 years. They stayed the whole time, although some like Kebab King and others had already tired of the site their faith in forums is low to say the least

I was only 10 myself in 1980, but remember the final.

Me too - born 1970.

Post by **AndySamson** » Sat Aug 06, 2011 4:39 am

I was only 10 myself in 1980, but remember the final.

The Final is the first match i can remember watching, A month before my 8th birthday and i was gutted Bristow won and never forgot the way he rubbed it in during his interview. Eric was really at his cockyist during these years 79-82 and i'd tune in to hopefully see him beat (this passion had stopped by 1987ish). The final was a classic, Gamesmanship from start to finish by both players,Walking back down the center of the Oche, Slow-playing even when taking their darts out, the crowd involved and was gripping stuff right up to the dramatic ending. Years on i would later realize it was his fascinating character alongside his brillance which had attracted me to Darts and has had me hooked since. Thank you Eric

Post by **davcol** » Sat Aug 06, 2011 7:52 am

the good old days, great final and great characters

Post by **nikkiboy** » Sat Aug 13, 2011 12:45 pm

merged with Cat's topic in the nostalgia section