Wes Newton
| Wes Newton | |
|---|---|
| Personal information | |
| Full name | Wesley Newton |
| Nickname | The Warrior |
| Born |
27 August 1977 Fleetwood England |
| Home town |
Fleetwood England |
| Darts information | |
| Darts | 22g Unicorn |
| Laterality | Right-handed |
| Walk-on music | Crazy Crazy Nights by Kiss |
| Organisation (see split in darts) | |
| PDC | 2002– |
| Current world ranking | 8 |
| PDC premier events - best performances | |
| World Ch'ship | Quarter-finals: 2011, 2013, 2014 |
| World Matchplay | Quarter-finals: 2011 |
| World Grand Prix | Semi-finals: 2012 |
| Grand Slam | Last 16: 2011, 2012 |
| Premier League | 9th: 2013 |
| Ch'ship League | Semi-finals: 2013 |
| Desert Classic | Semi-finals: 2005, 2006 |
| European Ch'ship | Runner-up: 2012 |
| UK Open | Runner-up: 2011 |
| US Open/WSoD | Semi-finals: 2009 |
| Players Ch'ship Finals | Semi Finals: 2011 |
| Other tournament wins | |
| Tournament | Years |
| Grand Slam Wild Card Qualifier Lancashire Open Las Vegas Open Lytham St Annes Open Oldham Open European Tour Events European Darts Trophy Players Championships Players Ch'ship (BAR) Players Ch'ship (CRW) Players Ch'ship (SCO) Players Ch'ship (WIG) UK Open Qualifier |
2008 2008 2009 2009 2010 2013 2010, 2010 2011 2009 2010 2012, 2012 |
| Other achievements | |
| 2012 Throw first televised nine-dart finish during the World Matchplay.[1] | |
Wesley "Wes" Newton (born 27 August 1977 in Blackpool, Lancashire) is an English professional darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation tournaments. He has been playing on the circuit since 2002 but waited until 2009 to turn professional and had won his first ranking event and entered the world's top eight within two years. He is yet to win a PDC major title having lost both of the finals he has reached.
Darts career
He made his PDC debut at the 2004 UK Open and his World Championship debut came in 2005 when he lost to Gerry Convery. He reached the semi-finals of the 2005 Las Vegas Desert Classic where he was beaten by Phil Taylor. He suffered a broken collarbone shortly after the event but returned for the 2005 World Grand Prix, losing in the second round to Colin Lloyd.
His second attempt in the World Championship in 2006 ended in a second round defeat to Kevin Painter, and another second round defeat came in the 2007 World Championships to Colin Osborne. This was followed by a first round exit in the 2008 World Championship, losing to qualifier Jamie Caven.
Newton won the ITV Wildcard Qualifier for the 2008 Grand Slam of Darts, beating Colin McGarry in the final. He was drawn into Group F with Terry Jenkins, Colin Lloyd and American Darin Young where Newton defeated Lloyd and Young in his first two games to stand a great chance of qualifying for the knockout stages. However, Newton would go on to lose to Jenkins 0–5 and Young beat Lloyd to pip him to second place and knock Newton out.
Newton entered the 2009 PDC World Championship as the number 31 seed and defeated Denmark's Per Laursen in the first round, before falling to Raymond van Barneveld in round two. After the tournament, he fell outside the top 32 on the PDC Order of Merit, eventually dropping as low as 36th. Newton won the WDF-ranked Las Vegas Open on 25 January 2009.
Newton made the second round of the 2010 World Championship after defeating Jarkko Komula in the first round 3–0. However, he came up against an in-form Adrian Lewis in the second round, falling to a 2–4 defeat. On the weekend of 7/8 November 2010, Newton won two Players Championship tournaments in the same weekend, only the fifth player to do so. This followed qualifying for the Grand Slam of Darts on the evening of 6 November. As a result of his double win, Newton broke into the top 16 in the Order of Merit for the first time in his career. At the Grand Slam, he was knocked out in the group stage after defeating Michael van Gerwen and losing to Ted Hankey and Phil Taylor.
2011
Newton continued his progress at the 2011 World Championship, defeating Darin Young, Brendan Dolan and Mensur Suljovic on the way to the quarter-finals. He then led Terry Jenkins 4–3 in his quarter-final, before Jenkins fought back to win 5–4. In March 2011, Newton moved into the top eight of the PDC Order of Merit, following a win in a Pro Tour event in Crawley.[2]
At the 2011 UK Open, Newton progressed to his first televised final. On the way to the final, he beat John Henderson, Michael van Gerwen, Raymond van Barneveld, Dave Chisnall and Denis Ovens, but succumbed to James Wade losing 8–11.[3] As a result of his run to the final, he qualified for the 2011 Grand Slam of Darts by right.[4] After the UK Open, it was announced that Newton had appointed three-time world finalist Peter Manley as his manager.[5]
At the 2011 World Matchplay, Newton beat Andy Smith in the first round 10–2, making it past the first round for the first time in the tournament. Newton then beat Justin Pipe 13–8 in the second round, before losing 5–16 to Phil Taylor in the quarter-finals.
2012
Newton breezed through the first round of the 2012 World Championship by whitewashing Kurt van de Rijck 3–0 and played Justin Pipe in the last 32.[6] He won the first two sets but then seemed to become distracted by Pipe's slow style and lost the next three. Newton managed to take the match into a deciding set but could not break Pipe's throw and lost 3–4.[7]
At the first UK Open qualifier in February, Newton beat Kim Huybrechts 6–3 in the final to receive £6,000. He also beat Kevin Dowling, Andy Brown, Robert Thornton, Jerry Hendriks and Richie Howson on the way to the final.[8] He also won the eighth qualifier three months later with a 6–2 victory over Justin Pipe in the final.[9] In the UK Open itself he lost to eventual winner Robert Thornton in the quarter-finals.[10] At the World Matchplay, Newton beat James Hubbard 10–5 in the first round,[11] before throwing the first televised nine-dart finish of his career in the 11th leg of his last 16 match against Justin Pipe. However, despite being 9–7 up in the game, he went on to lose 10–13.[1]
Newton reached his second PDC major final in September's European Championship in Mülheim, Germany.[12] He beat Tomas Seyler, Kevin Painter and then Andy Hamilton in the quarter-finals to face his room-mate Brendan Dolan in the semis.[13] Newton produced a superb comeback to take five successive legs from 6–9 to down to triumph 11–9, before losing to Simon Whitlock 5–11 in the final.[12] At the World Grand Prix, he was a dart away from exiting the tournament in the first round to Ronnie Baxter, but his opponent missed and Newton went on to win 2–1 in sets, before beating Ian White 3–1 in the last 16.[14][15] He once again produced a comeback in his quarter-final against Paul Nicholson, as he took the match 3–2, despite being 0–2 down.[16] In his semi-final against Michael van Gerwen, Newton was heavily out-scored in a 1–5 defeat.[17] Newton qualified from Group 1 of the Championship League with a 6–3 victory against Adrian Lewis, in a group that contained the top eight players in the Order of Merit.[18] However, he finished 7th in the Winners Group, winning just two of his seven matches.[19] Newton topped Group G in the Grand Slam of Darts with wins over Martin Phillips, Wesley Harms and Terry Jenkins to face BDO player Christian Kist in the last 16.[20] Newton trailed 3–7, but came back to tie the match at 9–9, before failing to hold his throw to claim the win.[21] After all 33 ProTour events of 2012 had been played, Newton finished seventh on the Order of Merit to qualify for the Players Championship Finals where he lost to Gary Anderson 4–6 in the first round.[22][23]
2013
Newton dropped just one set as he cruised into the quarter-finals of the 2013 World Championship.[24] He faced third seed James Wade and won the first two sets before losing the next four, which included four missed darts to lead 3–1. Newton produced a fightback to level the match but missed two darts to hold throw in the third leg of the deciding set and lost the next leg to exit the tournament.[25] By reaching the final of the European Championship last year, Newton qualified for the Premier League for the first time.[26] He could only win two matches out of his first eight and went into week nine knowing he needed to beat Andy Hamilton in order to avoid relegation.[27][28] Newton lost the match 7–5 and blamed his scoring throughout the season as the reason for his early exit.[29]
Newton won his first European Tour title in April, the European Darts Trophy in Sindelfingen, Germany, by defeating Paul Nicholson 6–5 in the final. Newton described it as the best win of his career after the match.[30] A tough draw at the UK Open saw him beat Simon Whitlock 9–4 in the third round, before meeting Adrian Lewis.[31] Newton threw a nine-darter to level the game at 4–4 and the match went into a last leg decider with Newton missing three darts to win, before Lewis stepped in to triumph 9–8. Both players averaged over 100 during the game.[32] He reached the final of the fifth Players Championship by beating Michael van Gerwen 6–4 in the semi-finals, but lost 6–1 to Peter Wright.[33] He was beaten 6–4 by Jelle Klaasen in the first round of the European Championship and squandered 5–2 and 7–4 leads over Jamie Caven in the opening round of the World Matchplay to lose 10–8.[34][35] Newton advanced to the Winners Group of the Championship League by winning Group 3 with a 6–4 success over Dave Chisnall.[36] He qualified for the play-offs by finishing fourth in the table before losing 6–1 to Phil Taylor.[37] Newton lost 9–4 to Van Gerwen in the quarter-finals of the Players Championship Finals.[38]
2014
Newton reached the quarter-finals of the World Championship once more and missed two darts to take a 4–2 lead over Peter Wright. The match went into a deciding set with Newton losing it 5–3 in legs to bow out of the event via a 5–4 defeat in the quarter-finals for the third time in four years.[39]
Personal life
He currently resides in Fleetwood, and uses the nickname The Warrior for his matches. His younger brother Dale Newton is a former professional player, and his dad Colin is a high-level amateur player. With his close family all playing darts, he actually attributes his career to his cousin Leon, exclaiming "he used to visit every summer when we were little and teach me how to play, stand and throw correctly even though he was 5 years younger than me. I owe it all to him"
Newton and his partner Stacey have 2 children a son, Fraser Wesley Newton (2), and Zac Newton (0).[40]
Career finals
PDC premier event finals: 2 (2 runners-up)
World Championship performancesPDC
References
External links
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