Darts Mania has swept the UK on the back of Phil Taylor securing his twelfth world title in dramatic circumstances on Monday evening.
44 year-old Taylor, the greatest player in the history of the game, defeated Mark Dudbridge 7-4 to take the 2005 PDC Ladbrokes.com World Championship and write his name further in to the record books.
And less than 12 hours later, dedicated darts fans had snapped up over 8,500 tickets for the 2005 Stan James World Matchplay, which takes place at the historic Winter Gardens in Blackpool between July 24-30 2005.
Tickets for the £120,000 32-man event went on sale at 9am and within two hours the semi-finals and final sessions had sold out as well as the allocation of 500 season tickets for all 11 sessions.
And with other sessions selling fast as well, PDC officials are expecting the entire event to be sold out within days – making a total of around 22,000 tickets bought in record time.
Ironically, last year’s World Matchplay final also saw Taylor defeat Dudbridge, as he picked up his fifth successive title at the event.
Tickets for remaining sessions are available from the Winter Gardens Box Office on 01253 292029.