The Best Darts Players of All Time

Wednesday, 18 December 2019 at 11:54

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The game of darts has been around for longer than you might think. It’s difficult to get an exact starting date for the game, but historians agree that it was around the 1300s in England.

At this point in history, Europe was a fairly consistently war-torn continent. The general consensus is that the game grew out of bored soldiers throwing sharp objects at an arbitrary target to both improve their aim and pass the time.

It is suggested that the first real targets might have been sections of a tree trunk, often used as makeshift wheels for carts and war machines, and the natural rings and splits in the wood is what eventually inspired the scoring sections on the modern dartboard.

The game quickly became hugely popular, developing a few sets of generally similar rules and even becoming one of the favoured pastimes of King Henry VIII, who was famously given a set of heavily decorated darts by Anne Boleyn, his second wife.

Given the game has been around so long, and has been enjoyed by everyone from the King down to your average player in the pub, it’s not surprising that is has produced some amazing players.

Darts has grown from a pastime for bored medieval soldiers into a sport with its own World Championship, and even a Fantasy World Darts Championship that runs alongside it. In this article, we’ll be looking at some of the best players of all time to step up to the oche.

Michael van Gerwen

Michael van Gerwen, or MVG as he is often called, won his first World Masters Tournament at the tender age of just 17, just four years after his darts debut. He also threw a nine-dart finish, setting a world record for doing so.

After this amazing start, Van Gerwen struggled to find consistent form, but since 2012 he has become a darts powerhouse. If you don’t count the Champions League of Darts, Van Gerwen has won every major darts competition twice and despite being just 30 years old at the time of writing.

Despite his struggle for consistent form until his breakthrough year in 2012, van Gerwen is now the kind of darts player who is the favourite to win any competition he enters.

Van Gerwen won his fifth consecutive Masters title in 2019 and has the kind of skill that makes you want to back him to win any match where he is holding a dart, especially in instances when you can bet on the favourite for free.

Phil Taylor

You don’t get the nickname “The Power” without being someone a little special. Although MVG has really taken the crown as the world’s best darts player, Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor is a name that will go down in darts history.

Taylor won his first major competition in 1990, and basically didn’t stop winning them until 2017, spending the majority of the intervening years as the number one ranked player in the world.

He is the holder of 16 PDC World Championship titles and has 85 major international darts titles to his name.

Taylor also holds the record for being the finalist of the World Championship 14 consecutive times and winning the World Championship 8 consecutive times.

Raymond van Barneveld

Putting an unmistakable Dutch spin on this list of top darts players, Raymond van Barneveld is one the most successful darts players in history. Van Barneveld acted as a figurehead for raising the popularity of darts in Holland.

“Barney,” as he is affectionately known by his fans, has won the BDO World Championship four times and the PDC World Championship once. He has also won the Las Vegas Desert Classic, UK Open, World Masters and the World Darts Trophy, and is a former Premier League Darts champion.

Eric Bristow

Nicknamed “The Crafty Cockney,” Eric Bristow elevated himself to World No. 1 rank on three separate occasions during his career, and won the World Championship and World Masters titles and impressive five times each.

However, he is possibly best known for his work away from the oche, raising the profile of darts as a game. He has appeared on “I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!” and was even made a Member Of The Most Excellent Order Of The British Empire (MBE) for his work raising the profile of the sport.

John Lowe

Sometimes, flash and crowd-pleasing antics aren't what you need to be an amazing darts player. John Lowe’s darts playing style is characterized by his slow and steady approach to the sport.

Lowe is consistent and undeniably effective, which is why he became the first player ever to win a World Championship in three different decades.

He was also the first man to throw a televised nine-dart finish in 1984, has won three separate BDO World Titles and won the World Masters twice.

James Wade

James Wade has set a number of sporting records during this illustrious darts career.

In 2007, he became the youngest player to win a significant PDC title at the tender age of 24, although this was later surpassed by Michael van Gerwen. However, he still holds the record for being the first player to ever throw three tournament nine-dart finishes during a single calendar, in 2006.

In addition to this, he won the World Matchplay and World Darts Grand Prix in 2007 and 2010 respectively.

Jocky Wilson

No list of famous darts players would be complete without Jocky Wilson. At a time when it was the norm for players to drink and smoke at the oche, Jocky became as famous for his antics as his darts playing.

Despite all those antics, Jocky did go on to win two World Titles, in 1982 and 1989.

The Real Kings of Darts

Henry VIII might have been famous for his set of jewelled darts, but the players on this list are the real kings of darts, setting world records, winning hundred of titles between them and doing their bit to raise the profile of the sport even when they were away from the oche.

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