World Seniors Champion of Champions 2024 | Day One Preview and Order of Play
The 2024 World Seniors Champion of Champions begins in Blackpool on Saturday as a host of decorated stars lock horns in the quarter-finals.
The second edition of the over-50s televised event sees eight players battling it out at VIVA! Blackpool from March 23-24.
The line-up is made up of World Seniors televised event winners from over the past 12 months, as well as a selection of finalists and qualifiers.
The tournament kicks off with a repeat of last year’s final between defending champion Leonard Gates and Richie Howson.
Gates prevailed 13-10 on that occasion to become the inaugural winner of the event – the first of his three televised World Seniors titles in 2023.
That triumph came after Howson had beaten the American in the semi-finals of the World Seniors Championship at the Circus Tavern.
Gates crashed out in the opening round of this year’s World Seniors Championship, losing out to Colin McGarry, before reaching the Fourth Round on his UK Open debut as a Rileys qualifier.
Howson remains in pursuit of an elusive first televised Seniors title, having finished runner-up on three occasions last year, though he has already picked up a Target Open Series and LP Metal Detecting Series title in 2024.
The second quarter-final sees two legends of the sport lock horns as 16-time World Champion Phil Taylor faces three-time World Champion Martin Adams.
Taylor, who also claimed 16 World Matchplay titles a stone’s throw away at the Winter Gardens, returns to Blackpool in search of his first World Seniors title in what is his farewell year of competition.
The 63-year-old will bring the curtain down on his illustrious career at the end of this season and will be hoping for one last hurrah in a town he has enjoyed some of his most memorable moments.
Since finishing runner-up in the 2022 World Seniors Masters and 2022 World Seniors Matchplay, ‘The Power’ has struggled to find anything like the form which made him the sport’s dominant force for decades, having won just four of his last nine games.
Taylor recorded his lowest ever televised average (74.53) in a 3-2 defeat to Germany’s Manfred Bilderl in the World Seniors Championship last month and faces a tough opener here against the most senior player in the field at 67.
Adams was runner-up in the 2022 World Seniors Championship and reached the semi-finals of last year’s Champion of Champions – where he was narrowly beaten 13-11 by eventual champion Gates.
The three-time World Master enjoyed a return to form during the recent Target Open Series, reaching the semi-finals of Event Seven.
Meanwhile, newly-crowned World Seniors champion John Henderson launches his bid for back-to-back titles with a clash against former PDC world finalist Andy Hamilton.
Henderson enjoyed a dream debut at the Circus Tavern last month, whitewashing Colin McGarry in the final to claim glory, having also won a Target Open Series event this term.
The former World Cup of Darts winner is currently ranked number eight on the PDC Challenge Tour Order of Merit and reached the Third Round of the UK Open earlier this month.
Hamilton will be out to avenge his 3-1 defeat to ‘The Highlander’ in the quarter-finals at the Circus Tavern as he makes his Champion of Champions debut after coming through the final qualifying event.
The Hammer, who held a PDC tour card as recently as 2021, was a Challenge Tour event winner the following year and has regularly featured in the Modus Super Series.
The fourth quarter-final sees two-time World Seniors champion Robert Thornton take on debutant qualifier Richard-Eirig Rowlands.
Thornton, who also claimed the World Seniors Matchplay title in 2022, suffered an agonising 3-2 defeat to Hamilton in the Second Round of this year’s World Seniors Championship, missing multiple match darts in the process.
The former UK Open and World Grand Prix champion reached the semi-finals of a World Seniors Tour event in January and will be aiming to utilise his vast experience over an opponent making only his second appearance on a televised stage.
Rowlands made his debut in the recent World Seniors Championship, going down in a fifth-set decider to Neil Duff in Round One, but continued his impressive form by winning the first Champion of Champions qualifier.
The Welshman dropped just 13 legs in his six matches en route to qualification, notably thrashing Andy Hamilton 6-1 in the semi-finals.
The action gets under way from 12pm GMT, with Quarter-Final matches to be contested over the best of 19 legs.
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World Seniors Champion of Champions 2024 Day One Schedule
Saturday March 23
Quarter-Finals
12pm-5pm
Leonard Gates v Richie Howson
Phil Taylor v Martin Adams
John Henderson v Andy Hamilton
Robert Thornton v Richard-Eirig Rowlands
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