MFI World Matchplay

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

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

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 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