The 2001 BDO World Darts Championship was a professional darts tournament held from 6 to 14 January 2001 at the Lakeside Country Club in Frimley Green, Surrey. It was the 24th staging of the competition since the 1978 event and the 16th time it took place at the Lakeside Country Club. The tournament was the first of 44 British Darts Organisation (BDO) tournaments in 2001. The host broadcaster was the BBC and the competition was sponsored by the cigarette company Embassy.
The 2000 Winmau World Masters winner John Walton defeated the reigning world champion Ted Hankey 6–2 in the final, becoming the 15th BDO world champion. He joined Eric Bristow and Raymond van Barneveld as the third player to follow their success in the Winmau World Masters with the world championship. Walton defeated Ritchie Davies, Mervyn King, Marko Pusa and Wayne Mardle en route to the final. Steve Coote achieved a 167 checkout, the highest of the competition, in his first round match against Mardle. A women's world championship was held for the first time. It was won by Trina Gulliver, whitewashing Crissy Howat 2–0 in the semi-final and defeating Mandy Solomons 2–1 in the final.
Background
Men's competition
The British Darts Organisation (BDO) was formed in 1973 by the managing director Olly Croft; the BDO World Darts Championship was first held in 1978. The 2001 tournament was held between 6 and 14 January in Frimley Green, Surrey and was the first of 44 BDO-sanctioned events that year. It was the 24th edition of the tournament and featured a 32-player main draw that was played at the Lakeside Country Club.
27 players automatically qualified for the main draw with the top 8 seeded according to their final position in the BDO rankings. Mervyn King was seeded first overall and the tournament's reigning champion Ted Hankey was seeded seventh. The remaining five places were decided via a play-off round at the Lakeside Country Club on 30 November 2000. Steve Alker, Shaun Greatbatch, Jez Porter, Davy Richardson and Gary Robson were the five players who progressed from the qualifying rounds to the main draw. The maximum number of sets played in a match increased from five in the first and second rounds to nine in the quarter and semi-finals, leading up to the final which was played as best-of-11 frames. Sponsored by the cigarette brand Embassy, it had a total prize fund of £189,000 and the host broadcaster was the BBC.
Bookmakers considered the two-time champion Raymond van Barneveld the favourite to win the tournament. Hankey said he was optimistic he could win the tournament for a second time, "I've kept my practising up and played in enough tournaments. I haven't let exhibitions take over."
Women's tournament
In November 2000, the BDO announced the creation of an independent women's world championship tournament; it was established to celebrate the BDO's 30th anniversary of staging and promoting darts competitions. The tournament was staged between 6 and 11 January 2001, and allowed women players to avoid having to compete with men in the International Play-offs, which they had done since 1995. It featured the world's top three ranked players with one unseeded player and a total prize fund of £8,300. Trina Gulliver was seeded first overall, Francis Hoenselaar was the second seed and Crissy Howat was the final seeded player. The only non-seeded participant was Mandy Solomon. All matches were played to the best-of-three sets.
Men's tournament
Round 1
The first round of the competition, in which 32 players participated, took place from 6 to 8 January and was held to the best-of-five sets. In this round, King came from 2–0 behind Chris Mason to win three sets in a row and a 3–2 victory; Mason missed two consecutive game-winning opportunities on the double 18 ring in the fifth set. Afterwards, he said "Lady Luck shone on me today." John Walton took the opening two sets against Ritchie Davies before his opponent won the third set. After Davies lost two legs in the fourth set, he won the third leg to return to contention; Walton won the match 3–1 in the fourth leg. Porter defeated fellow Englishman Richardson 3–2 in a closely contested match. Number five seed Co Stompé beat Andy Smith 3–1 to prevent a requite from Smith. On his debut appearance at the BDO World Darts Championship, Marko Pusa overcame the eighth seed Colin Monk 3–2. Pusa took the first two sets before Monk won the next two. Monk claimed the first two legs of the fifth set; Pusa forced a tie-break by taking the third and fourth legs. Pusa compiled two scores of 41 and one maximum score (180) to win the match on the double ten ring with his final dart throw.