Cliff Lazarenko

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Cliff Lazarenko (born March 16, 1952) is an English professional darts player who competed for the British Darts Organisation and the Professional Darts Corporation. Nicknamed Big Cliff, he is well known for being a very colourful character on and off the stage.

Big Cliff made his first TV appearance on the 1970s television show Indoor League. He since went on the light up the darting circuit, winning numerous titles in both singles and pairs events. He is a four time World Championship semi-finalist. In 1980 he lost out to Bobby George, the next year he gained revenge on George by beating him in the quarter finals, eventually lost to world champion Eric Bristow. In 1985 he reached the semi-finals again, this time without losing a single game en route, winning the opening round against Singapore's Paul Lim (2-0), the second round against the Swede Stefan Lord (3-0) and the quarter finals against Northern Irish player Fred McMullan (4-0) but was narrowly defeated in the semi-finals by the fellow Englishman John Lowe, 5-3. He reached the semis again in 1990 but once again fell short of the final, losing 5-0 to eventual winner Phil Taylor

Lazarenko was one of the sixteen players who defected from the BDO to form the PDC, although he managed to maintain his popularity with the fans, he never managed to repeat his performances in the PDC World Darts Championship with several first round exits to his name and only managing a quarter final at best in 1999. In other PDC tournaments however, Lazarenko showed great promise, he reached the semi-finals of the 1995 World Matchplay, beating Dennis Smith, Shayne Burgess and Nigel Justice along the way before losing to Dennis Priestley. He was also a Matchplay quarter finalist in 2001.

Lazarenko is now semi-retired, he no longer takes part in big tournaments, but still plays in exhibitions.