Dennis Priestley

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Dennis Priestley
Dennis Priestley with 1991 World Championship trophy
Personal information
Nickname	The Menace
Date of birth	July 16, 1950 (1950-07-16) (age 57)
Place of birth	Mexborough, England
Home town	Mexborough, England
Darts information
Playing darts since	1989
Darts	15g Winmau
Walk-on music	Hell Raiser - Def Leppard
Organisation (see split in darts)
BDO	1990 to 1993
PDC	founder member (1993)
Current World Ranking	11
BDO Grand Slam Events - Best Performances
World Ch'ship	Winner 1991
World Masters	Winner 1992
PDC Majors - Best Performances
World Ch'ship	Winner 1994
World Matchplay	RU 1994, 1995, 1996
World Grand Prix	SF 2000, 2005, 2006
UK Open	Last 16 2003
Desert Classic	Last 16 2002, 2004
Other Televised PDC events - Best Performances
Premier League	SF 2007
Other Tournament Wins
Tournament	Years
WDC UK Matchplay WDC World Pairs WDC Samson Darts Classic Gold Cup BDO British Classic Champions Challenge Dallas Open British Matchplay Welsh Open Pacific Masters British Pentathlon Los Angeles Open British Open Canadian Open Golden Harvest North American Cup Gem City Open (Daytona) Nations Cup (Eng capt.) Le Skratch-Sarantos Retsinas Memorial Stan James Players Championship JR & Vauxhall 128 Plus Classic UK Open SW Regional	1993, 1994 1995 1994 1991, 1992 1997 1991 1992 1992 1992 1992 1992 1992 1993 1993, 1994 1996 1996 2001, 2002 2005 2006 2006 2007
Other Achievements
Nov 1994 to Apr 1995 WDC World Ranked 1
Infobox last updated on: February 17, 2008.

Dennis Priestley (born July 16, 1950 in Mexborough, South Yorkshire) is a two-time World Darts Champion and the first player to win both BDO and WDC (now PDC) World Championship Crowns, in 1991 and 1994 respectively. He is nicknamed "The Menace", in relation to the Dennis The Menace cartoons, and reflects this by wearing Red and Black, and using Red and Black flights. Known for his slow style of play and tremendous mental strength, he is considered as one of the great legends in darts and is sponsored by Winmau Dartboard Company.

1 Early career (BDO)
2 WDC/PDC career
3 Other achievements
4 Setbacks and bouncebacks
5 Friendship/Rivalry with Phil Taylor
6 Current performances
7 Outside Darts
8 Cancer battle
9 World Title achievements
- 9.1 Other "World" finals
10 References
11 External links

[edit] Early career (BDO)

Priestley first caught the eye in 1989 when he reached the final of the News of the World Championship where he was beaten by the experienced Dave Whitcombe.

Priestley won the 1991 Embassy World Championship beating Eric Bristow 6-0 in the final (having defeated defending champion Phil Taylor in the quarter-finals). He won the 1992 Winmau World Masters and also picked up many BDO Open events between 1991 and 1992.

Priestley was one of the players who joined the World Darts Council (WDC) and split from the British Darts Organisation in 1993, going on to win their first-ever World Championship in 1994 see main article: PDC

[edit] WDC/PDC career

Priestley won the innaugural PDC World Darts Championship in 1994. Since then, he has been a PDC World Championship runner-up four times, in 1996, 1997, 1998 and 2000, losing to Phil Taylor on all four occasions. Priestley has also been a three-time World Matchplay runner-up, losing to American Larry Butler in 1994, Phil Taylor in 1995 and Peter Evison in 1996.

His 1996 World Championship Final with Phil Taylor is often regarded amongst the best matches in the history of the PDC. Although Priestley hit 15 180's and averaged 102 in the match, he was edged out 4-6 by the ruthless brilliance of Taylor. Perhaps for matches such as these, Phil Taylor stated in his autobiography that Priestley is the "best player [he has] ever faced". Taylor makes a similar reference to Priestley on the biography section of his website.

He also teamed up with Eric Bristow to win the inaugural PDC World Pairs Championship in 1995. The tournament was replaced with the World Grand Prix three years later.

[edit] Other achievements

Despite living in the shadow of Taylor for much of his career, Priestley nonetheless holds some unique achievements. They include the following:

He is the only player in the history of darts to defeat both Eric Bristow and Phil Taylor in a World Final; indeed, only Priestley, John Part and Raymond van Barneveld have defeated Taylor in a World Final to date. (The fact that Priestley defeated Bristow (6-0 in sets) and Taylor (6-1 in sets) so convincingly en route to his World Championships is also of note.)

He is also the only man to date to win both the BDO and PDC World Championships at his first attempt; Priestley won the 1991 BDO title in his first appearance in the main draw of the Lakeside event, while he won the inaugural PDC World Professional Darts Championship in 1994.

He is the first man to win more than one World Championship in which Phil Taylor has competed. Taylor has competed in a total of 19 World Championships (4 BDO, 15 PDC) of which he has won 13, Priestley 2, John Part 2, John Lowe 1, and Raymond Van Barneveld 1.

His three-dart average of 102 in his 1996 WDC World Championship final defeat to Phil Taylor remains the highest average of a losing World Championship finalist.

In 1992, Priestley won a dozen top events and entered the 1993 Embassy World Champiosnhip as the number-one seed. In his first-round tie against Jocky Wilson, he broke the Embassy World Championship record for the highest match average (102.6). This record stood until Raymond Van Barneveld averaged 103.8 against John Walton at the Lakeside in 2004. In his autobiography, Bobby Dazzler, Bobby George recalled that, during the same championship, he played Priestley in a best of nine-leg practice match. Priestley had a dart for a perfect 9-dart finish in every leg en-route to recording a 5-0 win using a total of only 49 darts (10, 10, 10, 10, and 9). George stated that, although it was only a practice match, this was the greatest Lakeside performance he has ever seen and was disappointed that Priestley's surprise 2nd-round defeat to Steve Beaton cost him a substantial wager that he had understandably placed on Priestley winning his second Embassy title.

Priestley also held the number-one spot in the PDC world rankings between November 1994 and April 1995 and was seeded number-one for the WDC World Championships of 1995 and 1997.

In 1997 Priestley won the British Classic in Blackpool, an event notable for being the first BDO event in which PDC players were entitled to enter - as a result of the Tomlin Order - since the notorious 'split' in 1993. Priestley also took the pairs title with Phil Taylor.

[edit] Setbacks and bouncebacks

The World Matchplay is perennially considered as Priestley's 'bogey' event, as he has never won it despite reaching the first three finals of the tournament. In the 1994 final, he held a 6-1 in legs lead over Larry Butler when the American alerted Priestley's attention to a distraction in the arena; Butler's wily intervention had a noticeable effect on Priestley and the American won 15 of the next 21 legs to seal victory.

The following year, Priestley suffered the first of five final defeats to Phil Taylor 11-16 in legs. The Matchplay appeared to be Priestley's for the taking in 1996 when hot-favourite Taylor was knocked out by Peter Evison, but Evison in turn edged Priestley 16-14 in a dramatic final. Priestley also reached the semi-finals of the event in 1999 but lost to eventual winner Rod Harrington.

Though he has won a number of non-televised ranking events over the years, Priestley has underachieved and on some occasions underperformed on the big stage; his perennial struggle to turn great performances into World titles shows this. In fact Priestley was close to quitting darts in 2004, unhappy with his form and had problems with his sight, but in his usual never-say-die attitude, Priestley returned to top form by pushing Phil Taylor to the limit in a memorable second round match at the 2005 World Matchplay at The Winter Gardens in Blackpool before eventually bowing out in defeat. Priestley managed to retain his form at the 2005 World Grand Prix in Dublin, Ireland reaching the Semi-Finals, beating Roland Scholten, Irish Qualifier Keith Rooney and Wayne Mardle along the way before going out to Colin Lloyd.

[edit] Friendship/Rivalry with Phil Taylor

Priestley is good friends with Phil Taylor, who describes Priestley as a darting "soul-mate" in his autobiography. During the early years of the PDC, Priestley and Taylor had an agreement where they would share prize money won at events. The arrangement lasted between 1994 and 2000 and made sound financial sense given that, in Taylor's words, they "cherry-picked most tournaments" (contesting 5 of the 7 World Championship Finals in that time) and also struggled for exhibition work due to the dispute with the BDO. The agreement eventually ended when the prize money grew to a level where the players could individually sustain a better living and this ironically coincided with Priestley's sharp dip in form.

Priestley is also highly regarded by Sid Waddell who, in the documentary "the Power and the Glory" commented that "Priestley was the only one (in Darts) who could do anything with him (Taylor)" between 1994 and 1998, while Eric Bristow endorsed the 1996 PDC World Final because "Priestley didn't drop from the 100 average he played against other players" when faced with Taylor.

In the same documentary, Waddell stated that - at the start of the WDC/PDC in 1993 - he thought that "Priestley would have a few years all to himself" on the circuit. Although Phil Taylor's relentless domination of the circuit from 1995-onwards did not allow this to be, Priestley's relative superiority over Taylor between 1991 and 1994 gives requisite justification for such a view.

[edit] Current performances

2006 was a successful year for Priestley, rising up the rankings to third - he remains in excellent form reaching some quarter and semi-finals on the circuit. These performances assured his position in the 2007 Holsten Premier League Darts, the respected darts competition in which eight of the best players from the PDC circuit compete against each other in a league format, with matches held across Great Britain at different venues.

In July 2006, Priestley fought his way to the quarter-finals of the World Matchplay where he was edged 13-16 in another classic with Phil Taylor. Wins over rising stars Adrian Lewis and James Wade booked Priestley another date with Taylor in the last-four of the World Grand Prix in Dublin; Taylor's 6-3 (in sets) didn't necessarily reflect the closeness of another epic encounter.

2007 got off to a successful start. He opened his Premier League campaign with a victory over Terry Jenkins and held Phil Taylor to a draw. In February, he won the UK Open South-West Regional tournament, beating James Wade in the final.

[edit] Outside Darts

Away from darts, Priestley is married to Jenny and has 4 children, Michael, Kerry, Wayne and Adam. He also has a granddaughter, Keeley. Dennis is also a massive football fan. He supports Barnsley and Liverpool. He also enjoys other sports including Horse Racing and Golf.

[edit] Cancer battle

In November 2007, Priestley was diagnosed with prostate cancer and issued a statement through the PDC regarding his health. ^[1] He was forced to withdraw from the John McEvoy Darts Classic in Ireland with pains in his abdomen having been diagnosed with the disease in the run up to the event. He had stated his thoughts were to undergo surgery at some point in early 2008, however, after losing 5-2 to Raymond van Barneveld in the second round of the Grand Slam of Darts (despite averaging 103.5), he announced that he would be making arrangements to undergo surgery in the days following the event.