The 2007 Ladbrokes.com PDC World Darts Championship take place at London’s Alexandra Palace for the first time. Last year’s tournament winner was Raymond van Barneveld who took the victory over Phil Taylor. Last year’s runners up Phil Taylor will face Michael van Gerwen in the first round of the 2008 Ladbrokes.com PDC World Darts Championship and Raymond van Barneveld will be drawn against either Japan’s Akihiro Nakagawa or Barbados’ Anthony Forde to open the defense of his title.

The 2008 World Darts Championship field of International Representatives has been expanded to 20 players and with eight initially competing in a preliminary round. The preliminary round consists of the four best-of-nine leg matches which will be played on Wednesday 19 and Thursday 20 December.

The winners of the PDPA Qualifiers and International Representatives will play in the first round which sees the top 32 players compete in the Championships and the final will be played on New Year’s Day for the second year in succession.

Here is the draw for the first round of matches

First Round Draw

Phil Taylor (1) v Michael van Gerwen
Adrian Gray (32) v Mark Walsh
Andy Jenkins (16) v Barellano/Navratil
Alan Tabern (17) v Per Laursen
Roland Scholten (8) v Matt Clark
Mervyn King (25) v German Qualifier 2
Wayne Mardle (9) v Ray Carver
Wes Newton (24) v Jamie Caven
Peter Manley (5) v Toon Greebe
Alan Warriner-Little (28) v Sayed/Yongsheng
Colin Lloyd (12) v Jan van der Rassel
Denis Ovens (21) v Colin Monk
Terry Jenkins (4) v Kirk Shepherd
Mick McGowan (29) v Jason Barry
Barrie Bates (13) v Gerry Convery
Colin Osborne (20) v Bolton/Extercatte
Raymond van Barneveld (2) v Nakagawa/Forde
Bob Anderson (31) v Jason Clark
Kevin Painter (15) v Gary Mawson
Chris Mason (18) v Steve Brown
Adrian Lewis (7) v Dave Askew
Vincent van der Voort (26) v Jelle Klaasen
Dennis Priestley (10) v Steve Maish
Wayne Jones (23) v Tony Eccles
Andy Hamilton (6) v Leroy Kwaidjk
Alex Roy (27) v Warren Parry
John Part (11) v Charles Losper
Andy Smith (22) v German Qualifier 1
James Wade (3) v Steve MacArthur
Steve Beaton (30) v Steve Evans
Ronnie Baxter (14) v Dan Olson
Mark Dudbridge (19) v Steve Hine

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