| Tony Eccles | |
|---|---|
| Personal information | |
| Nickname | The Viper |
| Born | 8 January 1970 Middlesbrough, England |
| Home town | Hartlepool England |
| Darts information | |
| Playing darts since | 2002 |
| Darts | 22g Winmau |
| Laterality | Right-handed |
| Walk-on music | Rock This Party by Bob Sinclar |
| Organisation (see split in darts) | |
| BDO | 2002 - 2007, 2012 |
| PDC | 2007 - 2012 |
| Current world ranking | 45 |
| BDO majors - best performances | |
| World Ch'ship | Quarter-Finals 2007 |
| World Masters | Last 32 2006 |
| World Darts Trophy | Quarter-Finals 2004 |
| Int. Darts League | Last 16 Group 2007 |
| PDC premier events - best performances | |
| World Ch'ship | Third round 2008 |
| World Matchplay | Second round 2008 |
| World Grand Prix | Second round 2008 |
| Desert Classic | First round 2007 |
| UK Open | Last 64 2007, 2009 |
| Players Ch'ship Finals | First round 2009, 2010, 2011 |
| Other tournament wins | |
| Tournament | Years |
| British Open Dutch Open Swedish Open Norway Open German Gold Cup |
2002 2005 2005, 2006 2006, 2007 2007 |
| Other achievements | |
Tony Eccles (born 8 January 1970 in Middlesbrough) is a Winmau sponsored darts player currently residing in Hartlepool. He uses the nickname The Viper.
Contents |
He made his debut in the World Championship in 2002 but only won one match in his first five visits to Lakeside. Having lost to Wayne Jones (2002), Erik Clarys (2003) and John Walton (2004) he notched his first ever win at the World Championship against Tony David in 2005, before falling to Vincent van der Voort in the second round.
A first round loss again followed to Per Laursen in 2006, but his best run at the event came in 2007 when he progressed to the quarter finals before losing 4-5 to Mervyn King. Tony led King 3-0 but found himself 4-3 down before taking the match into the deciding set, which he lost.
He has had some success in some British Darts Organisation Open events away from the television cameras.
In 2005 he won the Dutch Open, England Open and Sweden Open and in 2006 took the Norway Open and successfully defended his Sweden Open title. He has maintained a high world ranking as a result of these performances, which helped him to be seeded five for the World Championship in 2006 and four in 2007.
In April 2007 he won the Norway Open for the second successive year.
On the eve of the UK Open in June 2007, Eccles announced that he would be switching to compete on the PDC circuit.[1] At the time of his switch he was ranked number 2 in the WDF and number 4 in the BDO world rankings and began his PDC career placed 151st in their Order of Merit. He made his debut to the World Championship in 2008, losing to Adrian Lewis in the third round. In the 2009 PDC World Darts Championship, Eccles, the number 30 seed, could have faced Russian ladies champion Anastasia Dobromyslova in the first round, but she lost her preliminary round match to Dutchman Remco van Eijden who faced Eccles instead. Eccles took a 2-0 lead before van Eijden, who played in the BDO World Darts Championship twelve months previously, came back to level at two sets all before Eccles eventually took the match with a 3-2 win to progress to the second round. He was then beaten by third seed James Wade.
Eccles was seeded 31 for the 2010 PDC World Championship but lost 3-1 in the first round to Brendan Dolan.
After injury and average performances on the floor, Eccles will be returning to the BDO Circuit for 2012.