Brendan Dolan

Brendan Dolan (born 2 August 1973) is a professional darts player from Northern Ireland who plays in Professional Darts Corporation events. He is best known for becoming the first player to hit a nine-dart finish in a double to start event which he did at the 2011 World Grand Prix. Dolan lost in the final of the tournament to Phil Taylor and it is to date his only appearance in a major final. Away from the television cameras in floor events on the PDC Pro Tour he lost his first seven finals, before winning his maiden ranking title in 2013.

Career

After two early exits in the 2003 and 2004 UK Open, his first major run came in the 2004 World Grand Prix where he earned his place through the All Ireland qualifiers, winning one of four places.^[1] He defeated fellow qualifier Mark Wilton in the first round but lost 3–1 in the second to Kevin Painter.^[2] However, he did not yet play in full compliment of PDC events as he only took part in a total of four tournaments in 2005 and 2006.^[3] Dolan reached the last 32 of the 2007 UK Open, beating Bob Anderson and Darren Johnson before losing to Dennis Priestley.^[4]

In March 2008, Dolan reached his first PDC Pro Tour final, doing so in the UK Open Midlands Regional Final. He scored wins over Vincent van der Voort, Roland Scholten, Wes Newton, Colin Lloyd and Colin Osborne before losing to Phil Taylor. The result though earned Dolan £3,000, which helped him finish 16th in the UK Open rankings and enter the tournament in the third round.^[5] He defeated fellow Irish player John MaGowan in the third round and then beat Adrian Lewis to reach the last 16 where he lost to Chris Thompson.^[6] Dolan won the non-ranking 2008 Ulster Open, beating Ronnie Baxter in the final.^[7] He qualified for the 2008 World Grand Prix as the highest ranked Irish player in the PDC Order of Merit and was beaten in the first round by Jacko Barry.^[8][9]

Dolan qualified for the 2009 World Championship by winning one of eight places at the qualifiers in Telford. He was beaten 3–0 by number three seed James Wade in the first round.^[10] In October, he reached his second PDC Pro Tour final in Nuland, where Wade fought back from 2–0 down to defeat Dolan 6–2.^[11]

He qualified for the 2010 PDC World Darts Championship via the Players Championship Order of Merit and won his first game at the event by defeating Tony Eccles 3–1 in the first round, but lost 4–0 in the second to Raymond van Barneveld, who hit a nine-dart finish in the match.^[12][13] He qualified for the Players Championship Finals for the first time but lost 6–5 to Adrian Lewis in the first round.^[14]

2011

At the 2011 PDC World Darts Championship, Dolan defeated Kevin Painter 3–0 in the first round before losing 0–4 to Wes Newton in the second round. At the World Grand Prix, Dolan defeated Wayne Jones, John Part and John Henderson to become the first Irish player to qualify for the semi-finals of the event. In his semi-final against James Wade, Dolan became the first darts player to hit a nine-dart finish with the double-start rule on television. He hit 160 to start, followed by a 180 then followed this up with treble 20, treble 17, and then the bullseye.^[15] Dolan eventually won the match 5–2 to reach the final, where his run ended with a 6–3 loss to Phil Taylor.

2012

Dolan did not enjoy a good 2012 World Championship as he lost 0–3 in the first round to Kim Huybrechts, picking up just two legs during the match.^[16] He then represented Northern Ireland with Michael Mansell in the 2012 PDC World Cup of Darts and together they reached the quarter-finals, where they were whitewashed by the Netherlands 0–4, having beaten Denmark in the second round.^[17] Dolan reached the last 32 of the UK Open, where he lost 8–9 to Denis Ovens.^[18] He also reached the World Matchplay for the first time and was defeated by Andy Hamilton 7–10 in the first round.^[19] At the European Championship he beat Justin Pipe and Andree Welge to set up a quarter-final meeting with Phil Taylor, who had never lost a match in the event.^[20] Dolan became the first man in 23 attempts to defeat Taylor in the tournament with a 10–6 win, at the same time breaking his own duck against the fifteen-time world champion after 14 previous losses.^[21] Dolan played Wes Newton in the semi-finals and from being 9–6 up he lost five consecutive legs to bow out 9–11.^[22]

Dolan once again produced his best form at his home tournament, the World Grand Prix in October. He comfortably beat world number four Gary Anderson, Vincent van der Voort and Justin Pipe to reach the semi-finals for the second successive year and the second successive major event.^[23] Dolan took out a 170 finish to trail 1–2 in sets against Mervyn King, but was unable to stop King from going on to win 5–2.^[24] At the Grand Slam of Darts, he finished second in Group F thanks to wins over Paul Nicholson and Barrie Bates to qualify for the last 16.^[25] Dolan played John Part and made a disastrous start to the match as he trailed 0–6 and despite only trailing at one point 6–8, he lost 6–10.^[26] After all 33 ProTour events of 2012 had been played, Dolan was 21st on the Order of Merit, comfortably inside the top 32 who qualified for the Players Championship Finals.^[27] He beat James Wade 6–4 in the first round,^[28] and again fell 0–6 down in the second round against Justin Pipe, and never quite recovered as he was defeated 8–10.^[29]

2013

Dolan lost in the second round of the 2013 World Championship 1–4 to Raymond van Barneveld.^[30] In his third World Cup of Darts and second with Michael Mansell the pair were beaten 4–5 in the last 16 by the Croatian duo of Robert Marijanović and Tonči Restović.^[31] Dolan reached the final of the second UK Open Qualifier following wins over the likes of Dave Chisnall, Ronnie Baxter and van Barneveld. He faced Michael van Gerwen and was defeated 2–6.^[32] At the UK Open itself he eliminated Matt Padgett and Colin Lloyd to reach the last 16 for the first time since 2008.^[33] He faced Phil Taylor and missed three match darts when leading 8–7. He threw first in the deciding leg but Taylor only needed 11 darts to beat Dolan 9–8.^[34] In October, Dolan came extremely close to winning his first ranking tournament as he led Adrian Lewis 3–0 in the final of the ninth Players Championship, but went on to lose 6–4.^[35] He faced Lewis again a few days later in the first round of the World Grand Prix and lost in the deciding leg of the final set.^[36] Another defeat in a final followed at the Dutch Darts Masters as he was beaten 6–3 by Kim Huybrechts despite averaging 101.52. This meant he had appeared in eight ranking finals without landing a title.^[37] However, a week later at the 13th Players Championship Dolan finally won his first PDC ranking tournament. He took advantage of a depleted field due to the top 16 on the Order of Merit all participating in the Masters to defeat world number 110 Ricky Evans 6–3 in the final.^[38] His second tournament win came later in the month at the final Players Championship of 2013 where he beat Jamie Robinson 6–1 in the final.^[39]

2014

Dolan was outplayed by Gary Anderson in the 2014 World Championship in a 4–1 defeat, meaning he has failed to advance beyond the second round in six appearances at the event.^[40]

World Championship performances

PDC

• 2009: First round (lost to James Wade 0–3)
• 2010: Second round (lost to Raymond van Barneveld 0–4)
• 2011: Second round (lost to Wes Newton 0–4)
• 2012: First round (lost to Kim Huybrechts 0–3)
• 2013: Second round (lost to Raymond van Barneveld 1–4)
• 2014: Second round (lost to Gary Anderson 1–4)

References

External links

• Player profile on Brendan Dolan from Dartsdatabase