John Part

John Part
Personal information
Nickname	Darth Maple
Born	June 29, 1966 (1966-06-29) 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	28
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 Canada Cup WFD World Cup Pairs Blueberry Hill Open Motor City Open Canadian Pairs Quebec Open Windy City Open Canadian Singles Cleveland Extravaganza Canadian Open Klondike Open Las Vegas Open Eastbourne Open WDF Americas Cup Irish Classic Vauxhall Spring Open Vauxhall Fall Open Golden Harvest Cup Players Ch'ship Players Ch'ship Players Ch'ship Derby Players Ch'ship North American Darts Championship	1991 1992, '93, '95, '98, 2002, 2003, 2007 1992, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998 1993 1993, 2000-2002 1993, 2001-2003, 2006 1994-1996, 2002-2004, 2007 1994, 1996, 1999, 2002 1994, 2002, 2003 1995, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2007 1995, 1997, 2002 1995, 2001, 2004 1996, 1998 1998 2000 2002 2002, 2003 2002, 2003 2003 2004 2007 2008 2011 2011 2010
Other achievements
PDC World Number 1 January to June 2003 Member of Oshawa Sports Hall of Fame
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 a three-times World Champion, having triumphed in the BDO World Championship in 1994 and the PDC World Championship in 2003 and 2008. His 2006 Las Vegas Desert Classic title and a host of other tournament wins make him statistically North America's greatest darts player ever.

Career

Early career

Part was given a dartboard by his parents as a Christmas present in 1987 which gave him the bug to take up the game.

PDC Success

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.^{[citation needed]}

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 then to have won a World Championship more than twice.

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. 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!".

Television Commentary

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.^{[citation needed]}

Tournament finals

PDC premier event finals: 10 (3 titles, 7 runner-ups)

Legend World Championship (2–1) World Matchplay (0–2) Premier League (0–0) Other (1–4) Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent in the final Score Runner-up 1. 2001 World Darts Championship Taylor, PhilPhil Taylor 0–7 (s) Runner-up 2. 2002 World Matchplay Phil Taylor 16–18 (l) Runner-up 3. 2002 World Grand Prix Phil Taylor 3–7 (s) Winner 1. 2003 World Darts Championship Phil Taylor 7–6 (s) Runner-up 4. 2003 Las Vegas Desert Classic Manley, PeterPeter Manley 12–16 (l) Runner-up 5. 2003 World Grand Prix Phil Taylor 2–7 (s) Runner-up 6. 2004 UK Open Scholten, RolandRoland Scholten 6–11 (l)[citation needed] Runner-up 7. 2005 World Matchplay Lloyd, ColinColin Lloyd 12–18 (l)[citation needed] Winner 2. 2006 Las Vegas Desert Classic van Barneveld, RaymondRaymond van Barneveld 6–3 (s)[citation needed] Winner 3. 2008 World Darts Championship (2) Shepherd, KirkKirk Shepherd 7–2 (s)[citation needed] World Championship Performances 1994 (BDO) - Winner beat Bobby George 6-0 1995 (BDO) - Round 2 lost to Paul Williams 2-3 1996 (BDO) - Round 2 lost to Steve Beaton 0-3 1997 (BDO) - Round 2 lost to Roger Carter 1-3 1998 (PDC) - Round 1 lost to Paul Lim 1-3 1999 (PDC) - Round 1 lost to Alan Warriner-Little 0-3 2000 (PDC) - Round 2 lost to Dennis Smith 0-3 2001 (PDC) - Runner Up lost to Phil Taylor 0-6 2002 (PDC) - Quarter-finals lost to Phil Taylor 0-6 2003 (PDC) - Winner beat Phil Taylor 7-6 2004 (PDC) - Round 3 lost to Mark Dudbridge 3-4 2005 (PDC) - Round 4 lost to Mark Dudbridge 2-4 2006 (PDC) - Round 3 lost to Wayne Mardle 2-4 2007 (PDC) - Round 2 lost to Chris Mason 2-4 2008 (PDC) - Winner beat Kirk Shepherd 7-2 2009 (PDC) - Round 1 lost to Bill Davis 0-3 2010 (PDC) - Round 2 lost to Kirk Shepherd 1-4 2011 (PDC) - Round 1 lost to Per Laursen 0-3 2012 (PDC) - Quarter-finals lost to James Wade 4-5 References External links John Part's official web site John Part's Profile and Stats on Darts Database John Part's helpful darting series offering advice on how to play and practice the sport Preceded by John Lowe BDO World Champion 1994 Succeeded by Richie Burnett Preceded by Phil Taylor PDC World Champion 2003 Succeeded by Phil Taylor Preceded by Raymond van Barneveld PDC World Champion 2008 Succeeded by Phil Taylor