| John Part | |
|---|---|
| Personal information | |
| Nickname | Darth Maple |
| Born | June 29, 1966 Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Home town | Oshawa, Ontario Canada |
| Darts information | |
| Playing darts since | 1987 |
| Darts | 23g Golden Unicorn John Part |
| Laterality | Right-handed |
| Walk-on music | The Imperial March (Darth Vader's theme from Star Wars) |
| Organisation (see split in darts) | |
| BDO | 1991 - 1997 |
| PDC | 1997 - present |
| Current world ranking | 24 |
| BDO majors - best performances | |
| World Ch'ship | Winner 1994 |
| World Masters | Last 16 1995, 1997 |
| PDC premier events - best performances | |
| World Ch'ship | Winner 2003, 2008 |
| World Matchplay | Runner-up 2002, 2005 |
| World Grand Prix | Runner-up 2002, 2003 |
| Grand Slam | Quarter-final 2007 |
| Premier League | 6th 2005, 2009 |
| Desert Classic | Winner 2006 |
| European Ch'ship | First round 2008, 2011 |
| UK Open | Runner-up 2004 |
| US Open/WSoD | Semi-final 2007 |
| Players Ch'ship Finals | Second round 2009 |
| Other tournament wins | |
| Tournament | Years |
| Syracuse Open Ontario Singles |
1991 |
| Other achievements | |
|
PDC World Number 1 January to June 2003 |
|
| Updated on 19 January 2008. | |
John Part (born June 29, 1966 in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian professional darts player, who is nicknamed Darth Maple.
Part is one of only six players in darts history to be a three time World Champion. His first world title came at the 1994 BDO World Championship and he later won the other version of the world title, the PDC World Championship in 2003 and again in 2008.
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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 practise in Toronto – coincidentally 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.
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 Championship losing to Taylor, who averaged a record 107.46 in the final.
He dropped down the world rankings somewhat in 2005 and 2006, but still enjoyed a major championship success in 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.
Ending a successful year, Part won the 2008 PDC World Championship with a 7-2 victory over Kirk Shepherd, winning the first four sets on his way to victory and joining Taylor, van Barneveld, Eric Bristow and John Lowe as the only players to have won a World Championship more than twice.[2]
Part couldn't beat another time Adrian Lewis in the Grand Slam of Darts. After winning two of his three qualifying matches in his group stages, he lost 8-10 against the 2011 World Champion after being led 7-1.
At the 2012 World Championship he made it to the quarter-finals for the first time since his 2008 title. He dropped just three sets on his way to the last 8 by defeating John Henderson, Richie Burnett and Kevin Painter.[3][4] He was involved in one of the greatest matches ever seen at the World Championships against James Wade. Wade opened up a 3-1 set lead, before his form started to dip to coincide with Part scoring heavier and hitting more doubles to win 3 sets in a row. The players broke each others throws twice in the deciding set to require a sudden-death leg, which Wade managed to win. Part said afterwards that it was "the greatest game I've ever lost!".[5]
In June 1994, BBC commentator Sid Waddell decided to leave the BBC to 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 to join Green in the commentary box during the latter stages of the 1995 Embassy World Championships.
Despite his decision to play in the PDC World Championship from 1998 onwards, he was a regular in the BBC commentary box up until 2007. He missed work for two days of the 2003 Embassy World Championship [6] due to the fact he was winning the PDC World Championship at the time.
He also missed the 2007 Winmau World Masters, a tournament which he would usually commentate on, as he was taking part in the first-ever Grand Slam of Darts in Wolverhampton. He has not returned to commentating at the Lakeside Country Club since 2007, having taken position in the BBC commentary box from 1995-2007.
World Championship Performances
References
External links
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