World Matchplay

The fifth edition of the World Matchplay was held from July 27 to August 1 in the Empress Ballroom at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool.

In 1998 Ronnie Baxter is ranked number two in the BDO when qualifies for the World Matchplay. He has an incredibly strong tournament and this could have been his year. The World Matchplay 1998 would have been his first TV victory, but it would turn out differently. Baxter beats Phil Taylor in the quarterfinals with 13-10 and Chris Mason in the semi-finals 13-11. In the final he faces Rod Harrington, who is the number one in the PDC. It will be a memorable game. In sweltering heat Baxter is ahead the whole match, but he cannot shake Harrington completely. Baxter takes a 17-14 lead and then only needs one leg to become champion. He gets a match dart at tops, but misses. In the best of 35 legs with the score tied at 17-17 Baxter is waiting on tops to take a 18-17 lead. Harrington is on 125 and hits, what is probably the best finish of his career. He starts with a triple 15 and after a long wait, he hits tops twice. This gives him the leg and basically also the match. It is Harrington’s his first major title in the PDC.

The seeded players have a rough tournament in 1998, three seeds go out in the first round. John Part loses to Chris Mason, Dennis Priestley goes out against John Ferrell and Keith Deller beats Peter Evison. The highest seed, Rod Harrington did not get to the final easily either in Blackpool. From the first round, he had to work hard. In his first match he beats Kevin Spiolek 8-4, a round later there was the 8-6 win over Gary Mawson, who lost to an eventual finalist for the fourth year running. In the quarterfinals "Hot Rod" competes against veteran Bob Anderson, a match that was particularly exciting towards the end and was eventually won by Harrington 14-12. Harrington hit a 121 finish on the bullseye to win that match. This after Anderson had missed bullseye himself on a 161 to win 13-11. In the semi-finals Harrington beat Keith Deller, the score line: 13-10.

But if you thought that Harrington had a difficult year getting to the finale. It was a piece of cake compared to Ronnie Baxter’s run. The Rocket played Andy Jenkins in the first round a match, which could be won with eight legs, but was only decided in the 26th leg. Jenkins had four match darts to win 11-9, but missed them all. Baxter eventually won with 14-12. After he beat John Ferrell in the second round he faced the mighty Phil Taylor in the quarterfinal. In particular, the fact that this was a battle between a BDO top player (Baxter) and the king of the PDC (Taylor) made the story extra spicy. The Rocket who won 13-10, after he had trailed 6-9 was now in the semi-finals. In the semi’s he won again by a narrow margin, 13-11 against Chris Mason. For the general public, this was the first time they got to see what a big talent Chris Mason was. He played great in his matches at this World Matchplay; especially the quarterfinal against Beaton was a fantastic match.