William Hill World Championship Preview

Updated: December 13, 2017

Tomorrow (Thursday) sees the start of the William Hill World Championship. The event runs until the final on New Year’s Day.

It seems a long time since the the PDC’s premier event entered the darting calendar, and this year the 72-man field (three times the size of the first event) boasts a purse of £1.8 million, which translates to over $2.3 million.

While the main focus will be on current World #1 (and odds-on favorite for the title) Michael Van Gerwen, and the retiring 16-time World Champion Phil Taylor, American eyes will be looking to Willard Bruguier Jr. to make a name for himself on the World’s biggest stage. Bruguier, a police officer from Wagner, SD, earned his place at the Ally Pally by capturing the PDC’s North American Championship in Las Vegas in July.

Known to his friends as “Willie J”, the 35-year old has posted some impressive results over the last two years, starting with his qualification for the 2016 World Masters, and it would be great to see him build on these performances on his return to England.

Bruguier doesn’t throw a dart until Sunday evening, when he faces New Zealander Cody Harris in the opening match of the evening session (7pm local time which is 2pm Eastern/1pm Central). A win there will see him return to action a couple of hours later against 17th seed Ian White.

Other highlights of the first round include the Michael Van Gerwen/Christian Kist clash, and yet another World Championship appearance for the man who represented the Unites States with such distinction for many years, Paul Lim, Now representing Singapore, Paul takes on Hong Kong’s Kai Fan Leung on Monday evening.