2001 PDC World Darts Championship Rod Harrington also went through, the home man winning 3–0 against Graeme Stoddart. Jamie Harvey continued his run at the Circus, defeating former champion John Lowe by 3–0. After a day off for New Year's Eve, The World Darts Championships started 2001 at the quarter-final stage. Matches now had been extended to the best of 7 sets (first to 4) for the quarter-finals and this is where the potential champions begin to show their proper darts. Phil Taylor continued his march to his 9th crown with a 4–0 whitewash of 1983 world champion Keith Deller, who played well short of
Split in darts a pressure group named the Darts Council had been formed by some top players and their agents, due to their concern about the imminent disappearance of darts television coverage. After over 3 years of internal pressure from the Darts Council had failed to produce any noticeable results from the BDO hierarchy, 16 professional players, including every previous BDO World Champion who was still active in the game, created their own darts organisation originally named the World Darts Council (WDC) in January 1992. They wanted to appoint a public relations consultant to improve the image of the game and to get