1999 BDO World Darts Championship 1999 BDO World Darts Championship The 1999 Embassy World Professional Darts Championship was held from 2–10 January 1999 at the Lakeside Country Club in Frimley Green, Surrey. Defending champion Raymond van Barneveld retained his title with victory over Ronnie Baxter in another thrilling final which, like the previous year's decider against Richie Burnett, went to the final set and a tiebreak. Barneveld became the first player to retain the Embassy World Championship since Eric Bristow won it in three consecutive years in 1984, 1985 and 1986. The standout match of this championship, however, was the quarter-final between Chris Mason and
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