John Player & Sons

John Player & Sons, known simply as Player's, was a tobacco and cigarette manufacturer based in Nottingham, England. Today it is a part of the Imperial Tobacco Group.

History

In March 1820, William Wright set up a small tobacco factory in Broadmarsh, Nottingham. This business expanded and earned Wright a comfortable fortune. John Player bought the business in 1877. He had the Castle Tobacco Factories built in Radford, Nottingham, just west of the city centre. He had three large factory blocks built, but initially only one was used to process and pack tobacco. The other two blocks were loaned out to lace manufacturers until the business had expanded enough to use the additional space.

One of John Player's innovations was to offer pre-packaged tobacco. Before this, smokers would have bought tobacco by weight from loose supplies and cigarette papers to roll them in. He also adopted a registered trade mark as a guarantee to the public that the goods could be relied on.

The business was run later by Player's sons John Dane Player and William Goodacre Player.

Players Championship

Players Championship may refer to:

Players Championship Finals

The Players Championship Finals (also known as the Cash Converters Players Championship for sponsorship purposes) is a darts tournament organised by the Professional Darts Corporation. The tournament originally featured the top 32 players from the Players Championship Order of Merit, a separate ranking system that only takes into account the non-televised Players Championship events on the PDC Pro Tour. In 2016 the field will increase to 64 players.

The tournament was first announced at the PDC Awards Dinner in January 2008 by PDC chairman Barry Hearn. It was initially held from late January to February, and originally took place at the Circus Tavern in Purfleet, the venue for the first 14 PDC World Championships. For the third edition, the event moved to the Doncaster Dome. The 2012 Edition took place in December at Butlins in Minehead.

Final results

Finalists

Television coverage

In the UK and Ireland, the first two tournaments were broadcast on ITV4 with the third edition being screened through the PDC website. The fourth edition returned to ITV4 where it has stayed eversince and ITV4 have signed a long term deal to cover the European Championships, Players Championships, UK Open and new tournament the Masters from 2013-2015.