Gary Mawson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gary Mawson

Personal information
Nickname	The Mauler
Date of birth	May 17, 1963 (1963-05-17) (age 45)
Place of birth	Etobicoke, Ontario,
Home town	Euclid, Ohio,
Organisation (see split in darts)
PDC	1995 to present
Current World Ranking	33 (June 2008)
PDC Majors - Best Performances
World Ch'ship	Last 16, 1999
World Matchplay	Last 16, 1998, 1999
World Grand Prix	Quarter-final 1998
UK Open	Runner-up 2008
Desert Classic	Quarter-final 2007
Other Televised PDC events - Best Performances
Grand Slam	Last 16, 2007
US Open	Last 16, 2008
Other Tournament Wins
Tournament	Years
Houston Open	2006
Infobox last updated on: June 8, 2008.

Gary Mawson (born May 17, 1963 in Etobicoke, Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian-born American darts player, who currently resides in Euclid, Ohio, United States. He moved from Niagara Falls to Ohio to further increase his chances of success on the growing American darts circuit. He uses the nickname The Mauler for his matches. However, it is wondered by many fans if he'll change his nickname to something to do with Rafael Benitez as it seemed to have a boost on his fan base.

He first entered the Canadian National Darts Championship in 1992 and reached the last 16. When the World Darts Council (now the Professional Darts Corporation - PDC) was first formed in 1994, players from the North American circuit were added to the 14 who broke away from the British Darts Organisation to bring the number of players up to the total required for a tournament. Mawson was among those who were selected.

He appeared at each PDC World Matchplay between 1995 and 2000 and also the PDC World Championship between 1996 and 2000 - but the last 16 was his best performance. He did manage to reach the quarter-finals of the 1998 World Grand Prix which remained his best performance in a PDC event until he made it to the quarter finals of the 2007 Las Vegas Desert Classic.

As a result of his performances on the North American circuit including his Vegas quarter-final, he qualified for the inaugural Grand Slam of Darts in 2007 and was back at the World Championships in 2008 for the first time since 2000.

2008 also saw Mawson defeat Raymond van Barneveld in the US Open. He eventually reached Last 16 of the tournament, losing to Ronnie Baxter.

Mawson had a great run in the 2008 UK Open, reaching the Final where he was beaten by James Wade. It was a tournament Mawson nearly did not play in, as he left his passport in an American airpot and had only arrived in the country on the day the tournament began. He defeated Darren Johnson and Mark Frost in the first two rounds, before beating Alex Roy, Mark Lawrence, Mark Dudbridge and Wayne Jones to reach the semi finals before upsetting reigning champion Raymond van Barneveld to reach his first major final. It was the second time that he had beaten Barney in a matter of weeks.

During the tournament, Mawson became popular with British fans due to his resemblance to Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez. The resemblance caused chants such as 'Rafa give us a wave...' and 'Rafa Rafael, Rafa Rafael, Rafa Rafael, Rafael Benitez'. After the match, when asked in jest whether he should change his nickname to Rafa, he proclaimed that "Rafael Benitez is changing his name to Gary Mawson. The new manager of Liverpool is Gary Mawson".