MFI World Matchplay

For the current PDC major tournament, see World Matchplay (darts).

MFI World Matchplay
Tournament information
Venue	Fulcrum Centre, Slough (1984-85), Festival Hall, Basildon (1986-88)
Country	England
Established	1984
Organisation(s)	BDO Major (5 editions)
Format	Sets
Final Year	1988
Final champion(s)
Eric Bristow

The MFI World Matchplay championship was a major darts tournament organised by the British Darts Organisation.

The tournament only lasted for five years but is historic in darts as it featured the first ever televised nine-dart finish on 13 October 1984 when John Lowe won £102,000 for the perfect game of darts against Keith Deller. Lowe went on to win the title that year.

MFI World Matchplay finals

The complete list of final results: ^[1]

Year	Champion (average in final)	Score	Runner-up (average in final)	Prize money			Sponsor	Venue
				Total	Champion	Runner-up
1984	John Lowe	5–3	Cliff Lazarenko	£36,000	£12,000	£5,000	MFI	Fulcrum Centre, Slough
1985	Eric Bristow	5–4	Bob Anderson	£41,000	£15,000	£6,000
1986	Mike Gregory	5–1	Jocky Wilson	£41,000	£15,000	£6,000		Festival Hall, Basildon
1987	Bob Anderson	5–1	John Lowe	£47,400	£18,000	£7,000
1988	Eric Bristow (92.91)	5–1	Bob Sinnaeve (88.38)	£52,000	£21,000	£7,500

Finalists

Rank	Player	Won	Runner-up	Finals
1	Eric Bristow	2	0	2
2	Bob Anderson	1	1	2
	John Lowe	1	1	2
4	Mike Gregory	1	0	1
5	Cliff Lazarenko	0	1	1
	Bob Sinnaeve	0	1	1
	Jocky Wilson	0	1	1

Nine-dart finish

John Lowe threw the first ever televised nine-dart finish on 13 October 1984 against Keith Deller. As well as for being the first, it stands out for the rarity of the final visit combination.

Player	Year (+Round)	Method	Opponent	Result	Prize
John Lowe	1984, Quarter-Final	3 x T20; 3 x T20; T17, T18, D18	Keith Deller	3–1	£102,000

Media coverage

The tournament was broadcast on ITV and originally came from The Fulcrum Centre, Slough, before moving to Festival Hall, Basildon. ^[2] The tournament ceased after the 1988 tournament due to ITV announcing that they were pulling out of darts coverage altogether.

Sponsors

Sponsor	Years
MFI	1984-88

References

1. "MFI World Matchplay Winners". DartsDatabase. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
2. "Darts Results - MFI World Matchplay - Darts Mad". Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 21 December 2015.

External links

• Dartsdatabase: MFI World Matchplay Winners
• Mastercaller MFI World Matchplay