World Championship Men

The 2004 Lakeside World Darts Championship was the first World Darts Championship held after Imperial Tobacco were forced to withdraw their sponsorship. UK government legislation had banned tobacco companies from attaching their brands to sporting events from 2003.

The tournament had been previously known as the Embassy World Championship for 26 years since its inception in 1978. Bob Potter, owner of the Lakeside Country Club which hosts the event, stepped in to become the new title sponsor of the event. The prize fund for 2004 matched the previous year, with the exception of the non-qualifiers payments, which were removed.

The championship was staged between 3–11 January. Andy Fordham became a new name on the trophy after defeating defending champion, Raymond van Barneveld in the semi-final and Mervyn King in the final. Fordham hit the highest 3-dart average in the final (97.08) since the PDC/BDO split in 1993 - although Phil Taylor and Eric Bristow had each surpassed that figure twice in their previous BDO title wins.

In the first round, the number four seed Tony David lost to the Englishman Darryl Fitton. The 2002 champion was beaten 3-2 by the Englishman who would also defeat James Wade before he bowing out to the eventual champion in a deciding set. The world number two Ted Hankey also lost in the quarterfinals. He lost to Tony O'Shea who lost to Mervyn King in the semi-finals.

Raymond van Barneveld threw an average of 103.83 in the quarterfinals against John Walton and that record still stands as the highest average ever thrown at the BDO World Championships today.

In the first round match between Mervyn King and Rick Hofstra a remarkable incident occurred. After two sets were played King demanded that the distance from the oche to the board was measured and this was indeed done. The contest had to be stopped for a while, but the distance proved to be correct. Later it would become clear that the boards in the practise area did not have the correct dimensions. Until the break Hofstra had played some great darts against the King making it very difficult for the Englishmen, but after the break King raced to victory. The incident got King a lot of criticism from the fans. Since the 2004 Lakeside the rule states that after the practise darts players cannot ask the referee to re-measure the board.