By common consent, Raymond van Barneveld’s comeback to win the Ladbrokes.com World Championship two weeks ago was probably the greatest final in the history of the PDC circuit, but the final of the BDO World Championships last night proved to be equally dramatic. Phill Nixon, a qualifier, staged an astonishing revival to claw his way back from six sets down before he finally lost to Martin Adams, 7-6.
Adams, the England captain and No 1 seed, has been involved in some classic battles at Lakeside Country Club, in Frimley Green, but this was the best of them all. He had suffered the heartache of losing to Van Barneveld on his only other appearance in the final, two years ago, and he nearly blew his chance of victory again last night. But this time he hung on and regained his wavering composure to hit double 20 and clinch his first world title. Adams, 50, won £70,000 and became the oldest winner, of the tournament, now in its 30th year.
“I’ve been chasing this trophy for 14 years and now I’ve got it,” Adams said. “I will take great pride in looking at all the names on it, going back to the great Leighton Rees in 1978.
“I was trying too hard, tightening up and I needed to relax. I was rubbish. In my mind I thought, ‘Surely I am not going to lose, keep going, you will find an opportunity and you can do it’.
“He started to come back and I could hear my wife. She was getting excited and screaming and I said, ‘Calm down — it is only a game of darts’. I wanted to win the title once and I would be happy, but having won it now, I want to do it again.”
Nixon, 50, a house-husband from Durham with eight children and four grandchildren, practises in between hoovering and at 6-0 down at the break he was being comprehensively blown away by the big bad “Wolfie”. But there is no doubting Nixon’s durability and fighting spirit. In the past, he has beaten Phil Taylor and Eric Bristow, but it had taken him 20 attempts to qualify for the World Championship — he was priced as a 500-1 outsider last weekend — and he was not about to crumble now.
He stabbed himself in the leg with his darts in the interval and then, playing with no pressure, produced an hour of inspired darts to draw level with Adams at 6-6 and increase the tension on his opponent’s reddening face.
“I didn’t get disgraced,” Nixon, who collected £30,000, said. “I never gave up. Martin took the first six sets, I took the next six and then he took the one that mattered. He was fantastic but I enjoyed it. I can’t wait to go home and see the kids. I have to get back early to clean the house as it will be in a right mess! We had a load of people round watching this.”
The early stages of the match were a letdown for Nixon. He had caused a stir by beating four seeds en route to the final and, helped by scores of 135 and 138, took the opening leg. But an authoritative Adams struck double 16, double 20 and then hit a 100 check-out to take the first set. Nixon took the opening leg of the second set, with his fourth attempt at a double 20, but Adams played superbly to take the next ten legs. The match appeared embarrassingly one-sided and, very soon, 2-0 became 6-0.
It was astonishing stuff, but almost as surprising was Nixon finding his form in the seventh set. For the first time, he took two legs in the match, and then with Adams perhaps relaxing, Nixon hit double 20 to avoid a whitewash, to ironic cheers from the crowd.
Nixon hit double 18 to trail 6-2, took the next set with double eight and another to trail 6-4. When Adams missed his fourth dart for the title at two legs apiece in the next, Nixon amazingly took the set with double 20 to trail 6-5. He drew level at 6-6 with double 18 for a 64 check-out, but his brave run came to an end in the final set.
Check it out
4 Number of darts Adams missed for the title
6 Maximums for Adams
10 Maximums for Nixon
26 100-pluses for Nixon
38 100-pluses for Adams
87.10 Nixon’s three-dart average
90.29 Adams’s three-dart average
161 Highest check-out by Adams. Nixon’s highest was 112
786 Darts thrown by Adams
788 Darts thrown by Nixon
