First staged in 1998, the World Grand Prix is one of the PDC’s most established events. The format has changed, the venue has moved, but one thing has stubbornly remained: you’ve got to start on a double. It’s the tournament that separates the scorers from the sulkers.
The very first edition took place at the Casino Rooms in Rochester – that’s in Kent, for anyone who came here expecting a geography lecture. Unsurprisingly, Phil Taylor was the inaugural champion, beating Rod Harrington 13–8 in sets. Yes, sets. Best-of-three sets to be precise, which still felt like a marathon. The prize for that slog? A modest £9,000, which nowadays wouldn’t even cover some players’ flights and hotel bar tab.
Taylor, of course, came back the following year to defend his crown, cruising past Shayne Burgess 6–1. This time the PDC threw in a new twist: groups. Four groups of four, half went home early, the rest into knockout. Basically, a glorified pub league but with TV cameras and slightly higher stakes.
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Not content with tinkering with the format, the PDC then decided to change countries. For the next two decades, Ireland would play host, first in Rosslare before the tournament settled at the CityWest Hotel in Dublin. Taylor, naturally, won again – his third straight title, emphatically beating Burgess once more and treating him like an annual sparring partner. Eight seeds were introduced that year too, which meant the big guns got to skip the queue until round two.
In 2001, Dublin officially became the home of the Grand Prix. Taylor looked set to turn it into his own personal party, but Kevin Painter had other ideas. The Artist knocked him out and became the first man in history to beat Taylor at the World Grand Prix – a claim to fame he’ll happily remind you of over a pint. Alan Warriner (now since added “Little” to the surname for clarification) cashed in, beating Roland Scholten in the final to become the first “Darling of Dublin.”
WORLD GRAND PRIX HALL OF FAME: Winners and stats from this unique event
The following decade largely belonged to Taylor, with the occasional raid from Colin Lloyd and James Wade, who both managed to snatch the trophy from him. Jaws’ victory in 2004 was notable not just because he beat Taylor, but because it marked the first time the prize fund broke six figures - £20k of it went to Colin. Nice work if you can get it.
In 2011, Brendan Dolan wrote his name in darts folklore by hitting the first ever televised nine-darter with a double start. Against James Wade, no less. He’s been called The History Maker ever since, a nickname he mentions roughly twice a day. If you forget the date, don’t worry – it’s literally printed on the back of his shirt. Brendan even met his wife Teresa at CityWest, so his favourite venue is hardly a mystery. How he felt when Wade and Thornton both managed a nine-darter in the same match a few years later? Probably something along the lines of, “doesn’t matter, lads – I did it first.”
RECORD-BREAKING NINE-DARTER: Brendan Dolan makes history in Dublin (Double-Start!)
Then came 2012, the year the darts world realised Michael van Gerwen wasn’t just another Dutch prospect – he was a green-shirted wrecking ball. Mervyn King should have beaten him, but the Dublin crowd weren’t having it. They willed MVG over the line, and the rest is history. He’s now lifted the trophy six times, most recently in 2022.
Prior to the tournament leaving Irish soil, Robert Thornton and Daryl Gurney also got their names etched in Grand Prix folklore with a win a piece. In 2020 and after saying slán to Dublin, the pandemic meant it was quite literally sent to Coventry in 2020, where Gerwyn Price lifted the trophy in front of absolutely no one. It wasn’t there for long - just that one year before it has seemingly settled in its new home of Leicester - the Mattioli Arena to be precise.
In 2021, the trophy stayed on a Welshman’s mantelpiece but a different house with Jonny Clayton smashing his compatriot in the finale. In the several months leading up to that event, The Ferret had been hoovering up non-ranking TV titles for fun but still ranked low in the Order of Merit. Winning in Leicester gave him the ranking boost he needed – and probably made more sense of the listings.
Fast forward to 2023, and Luke Humphries followed the MVG playbook. Cool Hand beat Gerwyn Price in the Grand Prix final, then went on to win the World Championship and practically everything else in sight. Moral of the story: if you want to become the next superstar, start by conquering the Grand Prix.
And that brings us to the present. Mike De Decker arrives as defending champion after stunning everyone last year. The Belgian joined a very exclusive club of just eleven players to have lifted the famous trophy. The question now is simple: who’s next to write their name into Grand Prix folklore?
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