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| British Pentathlon | |
|---|---|
| Tournament information | |
| Venue | Various |
| Country |  England |
| Established | 1975 |
| Organisation(s) | BDO (until 2020),WDF, unranked |
| Current champion(s) | |
| Connor Scutt | |
The British Pentathlon is a professionaldarts event consisting of five different disciplines. It was first established in 1975, run by theBritish Darts Organisation and subsequently theWorld Darts Federation.[1] A women's event was established in 2004.
The event is invitational and has twenty competitors.Martin Adams has won it 13 times andJohn Lowe won it ten times. The women's event has been won eight times byTrina Gulliver. Other multiple winners includeEric Bristow,Phil Taylor,John Walton andAndy Fordham.
The Pentathlon has a unique format among darts events. Competitors play 24 games of darts over the course of the day: a two-legged 501 match against each of the other players (a total of 19 matches), single legs from 1001 and 2001, then games of halve-it, Shanghai and round the board on doubles. Points are awarded based on performances in each of the events. The champion is the player who accumulates the highest number of points.
The Pentathlon has been described as "the toughest and most gruelling darts event on the calendar," whose aim is "to reduce luck to a minimum and ensure that talent, skill and determination are rewarded with success."[2]Trina Gulliver called it "probably the most difficult darts competition ever."[3]Bobby George described it as "like darts' version ofSuperstars without any cycling, shooting or swimming." He also thought it a "ridiculous event", which "had no appeal to me whatsoever", and "one long, hard, boring slog".[4] John Lowe, on the other hand, enjoyed the event, but eventually stopped playing in it because the prizemoney hadn't increased in years.[5]
The exact rules can vary across events. In the British pentathlon, the rules are as follows:[6]