1980 BDO World Darts Championship 1980 BDO World Darts Championship The 1980 Embassy World Darts Championship was the third year that the British Darts Organisation had staged a world championship. Again the field was 24 players, with the top seeds receiving a bye to the last 16 stage. For the second successive year the tournament was staged at Jollees Cabaret Club in Stoke-on-Trent. Defending champion John Lowe, who had released a book "The Lowe Profile" just before the event suffered a surprise defeat 0–2 to Cliff Lazarenko saying afterwards "If you miss your doubles in this one, you must expect to go out." Eric Bristow
News of the World Darts Championship between Jim Pike (representing the Windmill Club, Southwark) and Marmaduke Brecon (Jolly Sailor, Hanworth, Middlesex). Brecon ran out the winner by two games to one. The tournament continued to attract 250,000 entries during the post war years . There was, however no national champion of the event until after World War II. It was revived as a national competition in 1947/48, and continued to be described as ‘the championship every dart player wants to win’ until its demise in the 1990s. The News of the World was the first nationally televised darts event as ITV broadcast the latter stages of