Tuesday 15 December 2015 09:48, UK
The World Darts Championship always supplies a shock result and Rod Studd has selected five of the most memorable upsets.
Defending champion Gary Anderson will be hoping to avoid a stunning early exit on the opening night of the tournament this Thursday, live on Sky Sports.
But he could join a list of big names to have endured disastrous days on the oche...
Phil Taylor was once again the defending champion that year, looking for his 17th world title. Bookmakers made him 1-40 to beat Michael Smith, who was the World Youth Champion at the time, but was completely unknown really. He went into the tournament as world No 32 and he's now up to world No 8, but back then the general public didn't really know much about this young kid from St Helens.
Taylor won the first leg with a 156 checkout and didn't miss a double for the first set. It looked like it was just going to be another day at the office for Taylor. But then it just developed into a brilliant match. It was nip and tuck until Smith suddenly produced brilliant darts in the final set, breaking Phil Taylor in the fifth leg. In the sixth leg - the tie-breaker - he took out 128 memorably on the bullseye for a 12-dart leg to win.
It still is the best performance of his darts career and the greatest night of his darting life. He lost to Peter Wright in his next match and has never been beyond the third round in the tournament.
Barney, the five times world champion, was expected to breeze through this match against Richardson, who was ranked at 85 in the world and had only been on the darts circuit for less than a year. A bricklayer by trade from Rushden, nobody knew who Richardson was, and when Barney started with a 180, everyone thought he would just blow him away.
Richardson was ruthless and Barney was toothless.
Richardson's nickname was 'Ruthless', but he left everyone speechless - he just went berserk. Off the back of that 180, Richardson won the first set. He won three sets 3-0, took out 145 finishes twice, and a 120 checkout. It was absolutely astonishing as van Barneveld capitulated amongst a sea of missed doubles. Richardson was ruthless and Barney was toothless.
Richardson lost the next game 4-1 to Kim Huybrechts, lost in the first round of the 2013 World Championship to Andy Hamilton and now has completely and utterly disappeared off the darting scene. Barney must still be wondering how he lost to Richardson, who had never played like that before and has not played like it since.
Colin Lloyd at the time was the world No 1 and in the summer of 2005 had won the World Matchplay. Gary 'Capper' Welding, nicknamed after a well-known factory in St Helens, had been thrashed 4-0 by Lloyd in their only previous meeting, which was in the Grand Prix. He was expected to make up the numbers, which is exactly what he did for the first two sets, which Lloyd won at a canter as 'easy, easy' echoed around the Circus Tavern.
What happened next was one of the most remarkable things we ever saw at that famous old darting venue. He astonishingly won nine of the next 10 legs to win the match 3-2 and promptly belly-flopped onto the oche in disbelief that he had knocked out Lloyd. 'Jaws' had been bitten.
Welding eventually lost to Wayne Jones in the quarter-final, but by 2011 he had disappeared from the darts circuit. For Colin Lloyd it was perhaps a sign of things to come, because he has lost his tour card this year and will have to go back to qualifying school. A very popular player could now disappear from our scene completely.
I could have picked five of Wayne's woeful performances, but this was the worst of the lot! Kirk Shepherd's 2008 World Championship is the stuff of darting dreams. The world no 142 started the tournament as a 1000-1 outsider and over a couple of weeks he made his way to the semi-final.
As difficult as this is to believe now, bookmakers made Mardle favourite to win the competition at the semi-final stage. He had just had the greatest night of his darting life, beating Phil Taylor 5-4 from 3-0 down in the quarters, shedding tears of joy on the stage. Within 24 hours he was in the middle of a waking nightmare against Shepherd, a kung-fu expert nicknamed the 'Martial Dartist'.
Within 24 hours he was in the middle of a waking nightmare against Shepherd, a kung-fu expert nicknamed the 'Martial Dartist'
Mardle won the first set, but before you knew it he was 3-1 down. He did get back in front later in the game, but you got the feeling things would not go to script when Mardle hit 10 to leave double one which he missed six times to lose the leg.
Eventually he lost the game and I vividly remember walking backstage and seeing Wayne Mardle still in his bright orange darts shirt, this pale, pallid figure sat on a step, hunched down with his head between his knees. He was motionless in disbelief at what he had just managed to do. I remember thinking at the time: 'What a wally, losing a match like that.'
Now he's one of my best mates and I actually now am more upset that he lost than he is, because I know how much it would have meant to him to play in that final. That was Wayne's best chance to win the tournament and it did not happen and never will happen now. Shepherd picked up £50,000 for losing to John Part in the final and has now dropped off the full-time professional circuit.
Part was the overwhelming favourite, he had just won the World Championship for the third time. Bill Davis, a veteran American, was known to be a handy operator but not in John Part's class. Part started very slowly, lost the first set, despite a flurry of 180s. Part lost the second also after a string of missed doubles and was two sets down. He threatened a comeback in the third, eventually missing double 20 for a 125 finish which would have kept him in the game. Davis went out on double 10 to finish him off.
If I remember rightly, Part had an ear infection at the time, but he did not make that excuse after and admitted it was Davis' day. The man from Philadelphia said it was the greatest game of his career and it never really happened for him after that. Davis lost to Barrie Bates in the next round and that was pretty much it - he hasn't been in the tournament since.
For John Part, it's amazing to think that he worked so hard to win the 2008 championship and yet his defence of it was over in just half an hour - that's how quick it was. Ironically it was exactly the same situation that happened to him when he last won the PDC World Championship, beating Phil Taylor in 2003. He then promptly went out in his first match in 2004 to Mark Dudbridge. History repeated itself.
Watch day of the World Darts Championship this Thursday night, starting at 7pm on Sky Sports 2.
