Photo courtesy of Yvonne Andrews

The 2007 WINMAU WORLD MASTERS had everything, from excellent BBC viewing figures to a televised 9-Dart 501checkout from John Boy Walton, and an unseeded 2007 Men’s Master in Scotland’s Robert Thornton, who has now gained automatic entry into the 2008 Lakeside World Professional – in which he has been drawn to play John Walton in the First Round on Saturday, January 5th.

There were also two maximum 170 checkouts from John Walton and Darryl Fitton, and a single dart average of thirty-one plus for the Men’s televised stage matches.

BBC-1 viewing figures averaged at 1.2 million (11.8% share of the available audience) on Saturday, November 17th and peaked at 1.6 million (12.8% share of the audience).

On Sunday, November 18th, the BBC-2 audience averaged 1.5 million (10.4% share), with an audience peak of 1.9 million (10.2% share) for the exciting final between Scotland’s Robert Thornton and England’s Darryl Fitton.

The high-scoring Scot enjoyed victory over three seeds: No.1 Seed Martin Adams, who he beat 3-1 in the Quarter-Finals with a 32.47 single dart average; No.4 Seed Martin Atkins who he beat
6-1 in the Semi-Final with a 32.39 single dart average, and No.6 Seed Darryl Fitton, who he beat 7-5 in an exciting final which produced 15 maximums and a single dart average of 31.42 for Robert Thornton and 31.76 for Darryl Fitton.

For Robert Thornton it was not only his first ever victory in a World  major, but also the biggest winning cheque of  his career - £25,000 - and automatic entry into the 2008 Lakeside World Professional Darts Championship at Lakeside Country Club from January 5th to 13th.

By an incredible coincidence, when he last played at Lakeside in 2005, he triumphed over Martin Atkins in the First Round and went on to reach the Quarter-Final  – where he was beaten 5-0 by Darryl Fitton.

The Walton 9-Darter came in the very last leg of his victory over Martin Phillips of Wales and was the classic 2 x 180’s, t20, t19 and d12. When the winning double 12 went in, the capacity crowd in Leisure World, Bridlington rose to their feet to acclaim the Yorkshireman, who won the famous World Masters title in 2000.

The four 2007 Winmau World Masters Champions are:

ROBERT THORNTON (Scotland): 2007 Men’s World Master.
KARIN KRAPPEN (Neth): 2007 Women’s World Master.
SHAUN GRIFFITHS (Eng): 2007 Boys World Master.
KIMBERLEY LEWIS (Wales): 2007 Girls World Master, who won the title for the second year in succession.

Sponsored by the Winmau Dartboard Company, in association with JJB Sports, the 2007 Winmau World Masters was staged by the British Darts Organisation and supported by East Riding of Yorkshire Council.