The 2007 Stan James World Matchplay was the 14th annual staging of the World Matchplay darts tournament by the Professional Darts Corporation. It was held at its traditional home, the Winter Gardens, Blackpool, between 22 and 28 July 2007. James Wade won his first major title, defeating Terry Jenkins 18–7 in the final.

2007 Stan James World Matchplay
Tournament information
Dates22–28 July 2007
VenueWinter Gardens
LocationBlackpool
Country England
Organisation(s)PDC
FormatLegs
Prize fund£200,000
Winner's share£50,000
High checkout170 England Kevin Painter
Champion(s)
England James Wade
«2006 2008»

Defending and eight times champion, Phil Taylor suffered a semi-final defeat to Jenkins, meaning that he had surrendered both the World Championship and World Matchplay titles for the first time since the PDC began in 1994. Raymond van Barneveld, who went into this event having won the first three Sky TV majors of the year (World Championship, UK Open and Las Vegas Desert Classic) saw his hopes of the clean-sweep evaporate with a quarter-final defeat to Adrian Lewis. Barneveld was making his debut in the event having failed to qualify in 2006.

Both Lewis and Jenkins suffered hangovers from their victories over the two favourites as they lost their next matches - with James Wade capitalising. He beat Lewis in the semi-final and Jenkins in the final. Wade became the youngest winner of a PDC televised title at the age of 24 and also rose to number three in the world rankings.

Prize fund

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Position (no. of players) Prize money
(Total: £200,000)
Winner (1) £50,000
Runner-Up (1) £20,000
Semi-finalists (2) £10,000
Quarter-finalists (4) £7,500
Second round (8) £5,000
First round (16) £2,500
Nine-dart finish (0) £10,000

Qualification

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Draw

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First round (best of 19 legs)
22–24 July[1][2]
Second round (best of 25 legs)
24–25 July
Quarter-finals (best of 31 legs)
26 July
Semi-finals (best of 33 legs)
27 July
Final (best of 35 legs)
28 July
               
1   Phil Taylor 97.89 10
  Wes Newton 84.07 2
1   Phil Taylor 101.15 13
16   Kevin Painter 95.40 6
16   Kevin Painter 89.78 12
  Adrian Gray 84.79 10
1   Phil Taylor 97.06 16
9   Roland Scholten 85.33 1
8   Wayne Mardle 89.38 10
  Mark Dudbridge 87.09 7
8   Wayne Mardle 94.40 6
9   Roland Scholten 93.25 13
9   Roland Scholten 90.58 13
  Chris Mason 88.63 11
1   Phil Taylor 98.44 11
5   Terry Jenkins 96.33 17
5   Terry Jenkins 95.23 10
  Alan Tabern 92.79 5
5   Terry Jenkins 92.98 13
12   John Part 91.83 8
12   John Part 94.62 10
  Alan Warriner-Little 85.00 5
5   Terry Jenkins 91.61 16
13   Ronnie Baxter 87.03 13
4   Peter Manley 79.57 9
  Michael van Gerwen 88.00 11
  Michael van Gerwen 87.81 12
13   Ronnie Baxter 87.75 14
13   Ronnie Baxter 85.61 10
  Bob Anderson 84.78 6
5   Terry Jenkins 91.62 7
11   James Wade 96.83 18
2   Raymond van Barneveld 95.62 10
  Denis Ovens 94.81 7
2   Raymond van Barneveld 100.53 13
15   Barrie Bates 83.27 5
15   Barrie Bates 92.36 10
  Andy Smith 85.32 8
2   Raymond van Barneveld 94.25 14
7   Adrian Lewis 96.81 16
7   Adrian Lewis 90.00 10
  Steve Beaton 83.24 4
7   Adrian Lewis 100.45 13
10   Andy Hamilton 93.42 9
10   Andy Hamilton 79.63 10
  Mick McGowan 73.68 6
7   Adrian Lewis 101.26 7
11   James Wade 101.90 17
6   Dennis Priestley 93.13 10
  Colin Osborne 92.31 5
6   Dennis Priestley 90.89 14
11   James Wade 86.67 16
11   James Wade 88.88 10
  Wayne Jones 87.40 7
11   James Wade 89.53 16
  Mervyn King 88.58 11
3   Colin Lloyd 89.62 4
  Mervyn King 92.08 10
  Mervyn King 96.85 13
14   Andy Jenkins 91.88 4
14   Andy Jenkins 88.89 10
  Mark Walsh 89.58 6

Television coverage

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Sky Sports broadcast the event live in the UK & Ireland for the 14th year running. The final between Wade & Jenkins achieved viewing figures of 183,000 - although that was surpassed by the quarter-finals on Thursday (188,000) and the semi-finals on Friday received the highest viewing figures with 240,000 (the third highest-rated programme on Sky Sports 1 for that week) [3]

References

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  1. ^ "Averages all the way". Darts Database. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  2. ^ "Seeds". Darts Database. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  3. ^ BARB viewing summary Archived 2007-10-16 at the Wayback Machine