John Part
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| John Part | ||
|---|---|---|
| Personal information | ||
| Nickname | Darth Maple | |
| Date of birth | June 29, 1966 | |
| Place of birth | Toronto, Ontario, Canada | |
| Home town | Oshawa, Ontario, Canada | |
| Organisation | ||
| BDO | 1991 to 1997 | |
| PDC | since 1997 | |
| Current World Ranking | 19 | |
| BDO Grand Slam Events - Best Performances | ||
| World Ch'ship | Winner 1994 | |
| PDC Televised Events - Best Performances | ||
| World Ch'ship | Winner 2003 | |
| World Matchplay | Runner-up 2002, 2005 | |
| World Grand Prix | Runner-up 2002, 2003 | |
| UK Open | Runner-up 2004 | |
| Desert Classic | Winner 2006 | |
| Other Tournament Wins | ||
| Tournament | Years | |
| WDF Americas Cup WDF World Cup Pairs |
2002 1993 |
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Infobox last updated on: December 2, 2006. |
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John Part (born June 29, 1966 in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian darts player, who is nicknamed Darth Maple.
He is a two-time former World Champion, having won the BDO World Championship in 1994 and the PDC World Championship in 2003. In both instances he was the first non-British player to win the title.
Contents |
[edit] Early Career
Part was given a dartboard by his parents as a Christmas present in 1987 [1] which gave him the bug to take up the game. He found a pub to practice in Toronto – ironically called ‘The Unicorn’ (also the name of his current sponsor) – and success soon followed. He won his first title in 1991 at the Syracuse Open and two years later, Part was Canada’s No.1 player.
Another big win came at the 1993 Blueberry Hill Open at Chuck Berry's restaurant in St. Louis, Missouri. He regularly plays the Open to this day.
[edit] Rise to Fame
Part was transformed from an unknown Canadian to the top of the game in just one week in 1994. Part had never played in front of television cameras before the 1994 Embassy World Championship and was given an opportunity following an acrimonious split in the game of darts the previous year.
There have been two different versions of the World Championships played each year since 1994. All previous world champions started up the World Darts Council (now Professional Darts Corporation) and the British Darts Organisation continued organising the Embassy World Championship, with only 7 out of 32 players from the previous year's competition re-appearing. This gave an opportunity for previously unheard-of players to participate. Part stormed through to the 1994 final losing only one set en-route. He defeated Bobby George by 6-0 in the final.
[edit] Lean Years
Part failed to capitalise on his first World title. In 1995, 1996 and 1997 he won his first round match at the Embassy World Championship - but was knocked out by Paul Williams, Steve Beaton and Roger Carter respectively in the second round.
After the 1997 Embassy World Championship, Part decided to join the PDC and initially his results were just as disappointing. His PDC debut came in the 1997 World Matchplay, losing in the first round 4-8 to American, Drew O'Neill. He also lost in the first round of the event for the next three years.
His PDC World Championship debut came in 1998, winning his first group match against Paul Lim - but lost 3-1 to Peter Evison and failed to progress to the knock-out stages.
[edit] PDC Success
It wasn't until 2001, some four years after joining the PDC that Part began to make an impact on the circuit. He made it to the final of the 2001 PDC World Darts Championship losing to Phil Taylor, who averaged a record 107.46 in the final.
But Part's resurgance continued - he reached the finals of the 2002 World Matchplay and the 2002 World Grand Prix. Again, Taylor was the man who ended his run.
Part finally managed to beat Taylor in the 2003 PDC World Darts Championship final in Purfleet. Taylor was 1/7 favourite to win [2], but Part took the first leg with a 121 checkout, and then roared into a 3-0 set lead. Part was still in control at 4-1 when Taylor suddenly hit form, winning 11 straight legs on his way to a 5-4 lead. Part then hit back with pressure doubles to take the 10th set and break Taylor in the final leg of the 11th.
At 6-5, with Part needing only to hold his darts to win the title, Taylor broke back to force a deciding set. However, when the crunch came, Taylor struggled to find his range and Part stayed calm to break and hold on for victory.
Part became PDC world number one in 2004 and proved himself to be one of only a few players capable of beating Taylor, when he knocked the Power out of the 2005 World Matchplay in the quarter-final.
He has dropped down the world rankings in 2005 and 2006, but still enjoyed a major championship success on 2 July 2006, when he added the Las Vegas Desert Classic trophy to his haul of championship wins, beating Raymond Van Barneveld, 6 sets to 3 in the final.
[edit] Television Commentary
Shortly after the formation of the WDC in 1994, BBC commentator Sid Waddell decided to leave join Sky Television. This left just Tony Green as the only commentator on the event. Part is considered to be one of the games's best "counters" or "spotters" (the ability to work out scoring shots or where the next dart may be thrown). This knowledge is essential to a darts commentator and contributed to Part being chosen by the BBC join Green in the commentary box.
Despite his decision to play in the PDC World Championship, he is still a regular in the BBC commentary box. He missed work for two days of the 2003 Embassy World Championship [3] due to the fact he was winning the PDC World Championship at the time.
