Walton defeated Ritchie Davies, Mervyn King, Marko Pusa and Wayne Mardle en route to the final.

It was won by Trina Gulliver, whitewashing Crissy Howat 2–0 in the semi-final and defeating Mandy Solomons 2–1 in the final.

[4] 27 players automatically qualified for the main draw with the top 8 seeded according to their final position in the BDO rankings.

[4] Steve Alker, Shaun Greatbatch, Jez Porter, Davy Richardson and Gary Robson were the five players who progressed from the qualifying rounds to the main draw.

[8] Sponsored by the cigarette brand Embassy,[9] it had a total prize fund of £189,000 and the host broadcaster was the BBC.

[4] Bookmakers considered the two-time champion Raymond van Barneveld the favourite to win the tournament.

[4] The tournament was staged between 6 and 11 January 2001,[4][11] and allowed women players to avoid having to compete with men in the International Play-offs, which they had done since 1995.

On his debut appearance at the BDO World Darts Championship, Marko Pusa overcame the eighth seed Colin Monk 3–2.

[15] Wayne Mardle, the winner of the 2000 Dutch Open, defeated Steve Coote, who achieved a checkout of 167, 3–2.

[16] Two-time finalist Ronnie Baxter defeated world number 26 Mitchell Crooks 3–1.

It caused a twenty-minute stoppage to allow security to remove her from the Lakeside Country Club.

Hankey achieved six maximum scores and averaged 31.34 per dart thrown to whitewash Greatbatch 3–0.

Sixth seed Kevin Painter produced three maximum checkouts to defeat Andy Jenkins, 1996 quarter-finalist Matt Clark beat qualifier Alker, and world number 22 Tony David lost to the third seed Andy Fordham, who had back pain.

Painter achieved a 164 checkout and multiple maximums in defeating Clark 3–1 with a match-finishing dart on the bullseye ring.

Fordham compiled two maximum scores and won two sets in a row to whitewash a faltering Jones 3–0.

[8] Walton won the first set of his match against Pusa and then missed the chance to attain a nine-dart finish on his penultimate throw in the second.

He then took three consecutive sets and completed a 138 checkout before Pusa produced two maximum scores as he won two legs in a row.

Baxter could not maintain this form and Mardle won two sets in a row with a 124 checkout completed on the bullseye to win 5–3.

Hankey took a 5–4 victory and progressed into the semi-finals with a 25 checkout after Van Barneveld was unable to convert a double.

This prompted Walton to respond with victories in the following two sets to lead 3–1 at the mid-session interval.

Walton produced a 121 checkout and finished the match in the eighth set by throwing a dart on the double nine ring.

"[29] The other semi-final game saw Hankey enter the final of the tournament for the second year in a row with a 5–2 victory over Fordham.

[30] Hankey registered one maximum score en route to taking two consecutive sets and lead 3–1 before the mid-session interval.

[35] He followed up with victory in the seventh set by throwing 31 darts,[33] and it coincided with Hankey's form declining.

[33] Walton's victory made him the 15th player to win the competition;[36] he had won the Winmau World Masters in December 2000.

[32] Walton was awarded the championship trophy by Kate Hoey, the Minister for Sport,[32] and earned £46,000 for winning the tournament.

Solomons achieved a 66 checkout to provide her with an early advantage before the final set was tied at 2–2.

The final set saw Gulliver hit the triple 14 and double 16 rings to move into a position of advantage.

Gulliver required six darts to claim the title and she converted four of them to win the match and the tournament.