Kevin Painter
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| Kevin Painter | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Personal information | ||
| Nickname | The Artist | |
| Date of birth | July 12, 1967 | |
| Place of birth | Billericay, Essex, England | |
| Home town | Daventry, Northamptonshire, England | |
| Darts information | ||
| Playing darts since | 1994 | |
| Darts | 19g Unicorn Kevin Painter | |
| Walk-on music | I Predict a Riot, by the Kaiser Chiefs | |
| Organisation (see split in darts) | ||
| BDO | 1994 to 2001 | |
| PDC | since 2001 | |
| Current World Ranking | 15 | |
| BDO Grand Slam Events - Best Performances | ||
| World Ch'ship | Quarter-Finals 2000, 2001 | |
| World Masters | Quarter-Finals 2001 | |
| PDC Majors - Best Performances | ||
| World Ch'ship | Runner-up 2004 | |
| World Matchplay | Last 16, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007 | |
| World Grand Prix | Quarter-Finals 2001, 2003, 2004 | |
| UK Open | Quarter-Finals 2004 | |
| Desert Classic | Semi-finals 2004 | |
| Other Televised PDC events - Best Performances | ||
| Grand Slam | Quarter-Finals 2007 | |
| US Open | Last 16 2007 | |
| Other Tournament Wins | ||
| Tournament | Years | |
| England Open British Open British Matchplay Swedish Open Bob Anderson Classic South West UK Open Sheppy Darts Classic North East UK Open |
1995 1996 1997 2000 2002 2004 2004 2006 |
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| Other Achievements | ||
| 25 England International Appearances | ||
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Infobox last updated on: February 17, 2008. |
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Kevin Painter was born on July 12, 1967, in England. He is a darts player for the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) and is known as "The Artist". He is famous for finishing runner up to Phil Taylor in the monumental 2004 World Championship final, now widely credited as one of the greatest televised matches in the history of darts, and one of if not the greatest final in televised darts. Kevin lives in Daventry, Northamptonshire with Janine Gough originally from Swansea who also used to play darts, and they have a daughter, Madison Elise. He is also a season ticket and share holder of Ipswich Town F.C. He often plays wearing a blue shirt in reference to Ipswich Town.
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[edit] Darting History
A former builder,[1] Kevin Painter started playing darts around the age of 17. Once an Essex county player, he won the 1996 British Open on the BDO circuit and made eight appearances at the Embassy World Darts Championships between 1994 and 2001. He joined the PDC soon after but failed to make a serious impact until the 2001 World Grand Prix where he made headlines with a shock defeat of Phil Taylor in the first round. He proceeded to the quarter-finals in that event. A semi-final appearance in the 2003 World Championship followed, where he lost to eventual champion, Canadian John Part. This was the furthest he had progressed in any of his world championship appearances, BDO or PDC, until that point.
Kevin Painter's finest hour came in the 2004 World Championship. As the 10th seed, he defeated 7th seed Ronnie Baxter in the fourth round, and a whitewash of former world champion Bob Anderson followed later on in the semi-finals. Painter then met top seed Phil Taylor in the final. What followed was the longest televised darts match ever and for a time the most watched PDC darts match (820,000 viewers)[2] until the 2007 final. The match went to 6-6 in sets and 5-5 in legs in the final set, so a sudden death leg was needed to decide a winner. Phil Taylor won it and became the champion, but Painter gained fame for his participation in such an epic final.
The following year was a strong one for Kevin Painter where he reached the quarter-finals in the UK Open and the semi-finals in the Las Vegas Desert Classic, his best performance in these tournaments to date. He reached the quarter finals of the 2005 Las Vegas Desert Classic and the 2005 World Championship despite falling victim to a leg injury which damaged his form and kept him out of many tournaments.
Painter's form dropped substantially in 2006. Despite a victory in the North West UK Open final and a second appearance in the quarter finals of the World Championship his ranking had dropped to 18 by the beginning of 2007. This was not helped by a defeat in the first round of that year's World Championship, to training partner Colin Osborne.
The latter half of 2007 however saw a strong return to form for Painter, where he reached the quarter-finals of the first Grand Slam of Darts despite being unseeded, and attained the second highest average in the first round of any player in the 2008 World Championship, where he was also responsible for knocking out defending champion Raymond van Barneveld in the last 16. Painter was knocked out in the semi finals by, again, the eventual champion John Part, his best performance since when he was the runner-up in 2004. Painter considers the win over van Barneveld as the greatest of his career.[3]
In 2008, Kevin was featured as one of the 16 professionals in the darts videogame PDC World Championship Darts 2008.
[edit] Controversy
Kevin is probably also famous for a notorious rivalry with Phil Taylor. Perhaps stemming from his victory over Taylor in the 2001 World Grand Prix, and the epic 2004 World Championship final, he has had many run-ins with 'The Power' including a memorable match, the quarter finals of the 2005 World Championship, where he often tried to check out by hitting the Bullseye, but failed many times. Taylor won the last leg of the match by deliberately leaving 50, then checking out on the bull, which Painter took as a taunt and argued viciously with Taylor for a few minutes after the match.[4] Since then the two have had numerous matches and the incident appears to have been put behind them.
In April 2008, Painter was involved in another incident at the Holland Masters, a non-televised tournament. In a quarter-final match with Taylor's protegé, Adrian Lewis, an argument between the two took place in the deciding set. This came close to violence and the two were disqualified from the tournament.[5] It is likely the Darts Regulation Authority, the governing body for professional darts, will set a date for a hearing of the incident to take place in the near future.
[edit] References
- ^ Interview with Kevin Painter, from Unicorn Darts, obtained 04-04-2008
- ^ BARB Viewing Figures, obtained 04-04-2008
- ^ Kevin Painter Interview 28-12-2007, from Youtube, obtained 04-04-2008
- ^ Phil Taylor vs Kevin Painter - 2005 World Championship, from Youtube, obtained 04-04-2008
- ^ PDC website report - Holland Masters, from the PDC, obtained 26-04-2008
