Stephen Bunting

Stephen Bunting (born 9 May 1985 in Liverpool) is an English darts player who competes for the Professional Darts Corporation.^[1] His nickname is The Bullet. He is the reigning BDO World Champion, and the two-time reigning World Masters champion.

Darts career

Beginnings

Bunting won both the British Teenage Open and the World Youth Masters in 2001 and also captured the WDF Europe Youth Cup in 2002. He made his BDO World Darts Championship debut in 2004 aged 18, where he beat Vincent van der Voort in the first round before losing in the second round to former World Champion Ted Hankey. He returned to Lakeside in 2005 but was beaten in the first round by John Henderson.

In 2008 Bunting won the Lytham St Annes Open and was also recalled to the England squad. In July 2008 he reached the quarter-finals of the BDO British Classic where he lost to Scotland's Ross Montgomery live on Setanta. In November 2008 Bunting captured his maiden BDO ranked open title when he won the Northern Ireland Open, beating fellow Cheshire player Darryl Fitton two sets to nil in the Final.

Bunting was successful in qualifying for the 2009 BDO World Darts Championship as the standby qualifier, but was beaten by Gary Robson in the first round.

On 21 May 2009 Bunting finished joint fourth in the Dutch Pentathlon in Oosterhout, The Netherlands. The pentathlon had a field of 20 BDO and PDC players and was won by Gary Anderson with Scott Waites 2nd and Gary Robson 3rd. It was played in Oosterhout Holland.

Bunting competed in the Winmau British Classic on 25 July 2009. He played Dave Chisnall in the semi final and beat him 2–0 in sets. In the final Stephen played Scott Waites, where he came out the eventual winner 2 sets to 1 with a 170 finish in the fifth leg.

Bunting qualified for the 2010 BDO World Championship, beating the debuting Ian White 3–0 in the first round before losing to top seed Tony O'Shea 4–0 in the second round. The following year, Bunting once again qualified and won his first round match 3–0, this time against Brian Woods with the tournament highest average of 94.62. Bunting then defeated Scott Waites in the second round 4–2 averaging 89.79 to reach his first World Championship quarter-final, where he was beaten 5–1 by third seed Dean Winstanley with both players averaging over the 90 mark.

September 2011 saw Bunting reach the Quarterfinals of the Winmau World Masters on ESPN. Bunting had been playing all morning to fight through to the live televised stages and in the deciding match Bunting defeated Wayne Warren. Bunting was into the last 32 and played Peter Johns from Wales. Bunting won 3–0 in sets and played Robbie Green in the last 16. Bunting won 3–1 with per dart average of 30.33. In the Quarter Finals Bunting lost 3 sets to nil against Ross Montgomery.

On 30 September 2011 Bunting played in the England Classic at Bunn Leisure, in Selsey Sussex. Bunting was the defending champion having won the title in 2010. Bunting started the day with a 3–0 win over Steve Gurney, followed up by a 3–0 win over Mark Davis. In the last 64 defeated Trevor Chant 3–0. In the last 32 Bunting beat Clive Barden 3–2. The last 16 saw Bunting defeat Sam Rooney 3–0. Bunting defeated Dean Jones 4–0 in the quarterfinal. In the semi final Bunting defeated Tony Andrews 5–1 with a per dart average of 30.27. In the final Bunting defeated Jamie Robinson 6–3 with a per dart average of 29.10. Bunting won the £2,500 first prize for the second time.

On 22 October 2011 Bunting won his first European event at the Tops of Ghent tournament in Belgium. In the last 256 Bunting defeated Billy Caluwaerts (Belgium) 4–2. Bunting then defeated Marcel Blik (Netherlands) 4–1 in the last 128 round. In the last 64 Bunting played his Lancashire county team mate Gary Hooper and won 4–2. In the last 32 Bunting played another Lancashire county team mate and newly crowned Romanian Open Champion Joe Murnan. Bunting won 4–3. In the last 16 Bunting played Martin Atkins 'The Assassin' who is a regular in the BDO World Championships. Bunting had a 4–1 victory. In the Quarterfinals Bunting played Christian Kist. Bunting won the tie 5–1 to gain a place in the Semi Finals. In the semi final Bunting played Darryl Fitton. Bunting ran out a 2 sets to 0 victor. In the final Bunting played Steve West. Bunting took the title 3–0 (2–3; 2–3; 1–3) in sets. Bunting won €1600 in prize money.

Bunting played in the PDC UK Open as an amateur entrant, and played two-time and defending champion James Wade in the second round. Bunting led the best-of-seven legs match 3–2 and had four match darts in the deciding leg – one at bullseye and three at double-19 – but was eventually defeated 4–3.

Masters, Zuiderduin and World Champion

In October 2012, Bunting took his largest career title by winning the Winmau World Masters as the number one seed, defeating Tony O'Shea 7–4 in the final.^[2]

In December 2012, Bunting won his second straight BDO major, the Zuiderduin Masters, by defeating Alan Norris in the final.^[3]

Bunting finished 2012 at BDO and WDF World number one.^[4]

At the 2013 BDO World Championship, Bunting recorded the highest average of the first round in beating James Wilson 3–2, but in the second round he was unexpectedly defeated by Darryl Fitton 4–2 despite once again recording the highest average of the round. Bunting led 2–1 and had five darts at double top to take a 3–1 lead, but was unable to take the chance and Fitton went on to win six of the next eight legs to clinch victory.

At the 2013 Isle of Man tournament final Bunting defeated Darryl Fitton 4–2 to win the title. He then won the Mariflex Open, the Welsh Open and the England Open.

On 14 July 2013 Stephen won the England Masters title at the Pontins Southport beating Paul Jennings in the final 6–5. In the semi-final Stephen defeated Tony O'Shea 5–3.

Bunting successfully retained the World Masters title in 2013, becoming only the fourth man to do so after Eric Bristow, Bob Anderson, and Martin Adams. He also became the first man in history to win the title without dropping a single set. His tournament included a 6-0 semi-final win over world #4 Darryl Fitton, and a 7-0 final win over world #2 James Wilson.^[5] In the next major, the Zuiderduin Masters, Bunting reached the final for the second straight year but this time was comprehensively beaten by Wilson, 5-1 in sets.^[6]

Bunting entered the 2014 BDO World Championship as the number one seed for the second year in a row. He defeated Jim Widmayer 3-1 in the first round, Dave Prins 4-0 in the second round with the tournament's highest three-dart average (100.65), and Rick Hofstra 5-2 in the quarter finals after Hofstra led 2-0 and had chances to win the fourth and sixth sets. In the semi-final, Bunting beat fourth seed Robbie Green 6-1 to set up a final with Alan Norris, which Bunting won 7-4 after the match had been level at 3-3.^[7]

Switch to the PDC

On the 22nd January it was announced that Bunting had received and accepted a PDC tour card. Which means he has left the BDO to join the Professional Darts Corporation.^[8]

Personal life

He supports Liverpool F.C. and St Helens RLFC.^[1] He has a son called Toby (born 2012).^[9]

World Championship results

BDO

• 2004: 2nd Round (lost to Ted Hankey 0–3)
• 2005: 1st Round (lost to John Henderson 0–3)
• 2009: 1st Round (lost to Gary Robson 1–3)
• 2010: 2nd Round (lost to Tony O'Shea 0–4)
• 2011: Quarter Final (lost to Dean Winstanley 1–5)
• 2013: 2nd Round (lost to Darryl Fitton 2–4)
• 2014: Winner (beat Alan Norris 7–4)

References

External links

• Personal website
• Stephen Bunting's profile and stats on Darts Database