Steve Beaton
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| Steve Beaton | |
|---|---|
| Personal information | |
| Nickname | The Bronzed Adonis |
| Born | 5 April 1964 Coventry, Warwickshire, England |
| Home town | Earl Shilton, Leicestershire England |
| Darts information | |
| Playing darts since | 1987 |
| Darts | 22g Red Dragon Steve Beaton |
| Laterality | Right-handed |
| Walk-on music | Stayin Alive (1977) by The Bee Gees |
| Organisation (see split in darts) | |
| BDO | 1990 - 2001 |
| PDC | 2001 - present |
| Current world ranking | 30 |
| BDO majors - best performances | |
| World Ch'ship | Winner 1996 |
| World Masters | Winner 1993 |
| PDC premier events - best performances | |
| World Ch'ship | Round 2 (3) 2002, 2004, 2012 |
| World Matchplay | Semi Finalist 2001 |
| World Grand Prix | Semi Finalist 2004 |
| Grand Slam | Semi Finalist 2010 |
| Desert Classic | Quarter Finalist 2003 |
| UK Open | Semi Finalist 2004 |
| Players Ch'ship Finals | Round 2 2010, 2011 |
| Other tournament wins | |
| Tournament | Years |
| Belgian Open British Matchplay |
1993 |
| Updated on December 23, 2007. | |
Steve Beaton (born 5 April 1964 in Coventry, Warwickshire, England) is an English professional darts player for the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). He won the British Darts Organisation (BDO) version of the World Professional Darts Championship in 1996.
Contents |
[edit] Stage persona
Beaton is currently introduced in the PDC as The Bronzed Adonis, a nickname derived from his tanned appearance. His entrance music is Stayin Alive by The Bee Gees. Most recently, Beaton has taken part in a number of marathons in order to keep fit and raise money for charity and Beaton has been referred to as The Marathon Man as a result.
[edit] BDO career
Beaton made his World Championship debut in 1992, at a time when the world darts championship was still a unified tournament. He lost in the first round to Chris Johns, but he was encouraged by his performance in the same tournament in 1993 when he achieved a huge upset win over the tournament favourite and former world champion, Dennis Priestley, and he also beat another former world champion in Bob Anderson, before losing in the semi-final to Alan Warriner. He turned professional later in 1993 at a time after the split, which saw the WDC players banned from all BDO tournaments - and Beaton went on to win the prestigious Winmau World Masters, beating Les Wallace in the final.
After the WDC (now PDC) players were expelled from all BDO tournaments in April 1993, it left Beaton as the top seeded player for the 1994 and 1995 BDO world championships, but he lost in the first round both times, to Nick Gedney and Dave Askew respectively, both times losing 2-3 after leading 2-0. This left some to wonder if Beaton had begun to rest on his laurels. But in 1996, he finally delivered at the BDO world championships, beating Co Stompé, John Part, Martin Adams, Andy Fordham and then Richie Burnett in the final to clinch the BDO World Championship.
When he defended his world title in 1997, Beaton was within the width of the Double 10 wire of reaching the final, but he lost to Marshall James in a tight semi final match.
Beaton won many Open titles during his career in BDO tournaments including the Dutch, Danish, Belgian and Swedish Opens.
Beaton continued to play in the BDO version of the World Championship until 2001 (reaching the semi-final in 1997 and quarter-final in 1998) before switching to the Professional Darts Corporation in 2002.
[edit] PDC career
Beaton has never made the same impact in the PDC, having failed to reach the quarter-finals in any of his attempts at the world crown, his best finishes being two Round of 16 losses in 2002 and 2004. His poor form has seen him slip down the world rankings but always maintained a position in the top 32. Beaton recently qualified for the 2009 World Championships, but lost 0-3 to Alan Tabern in the first round.
On a more positive note, Beaton reached the semi finals in three major PDC tournaments, the 2001 World Matchplay when he lost to Burnett, the 2004 UK Open when he lost to Roland Scholten, and the 2004 World Grand Prix when he lost to Warriner.
Steve has seen a rise in form in the 2009 season taking him even further up the rankings to 19th in the world. Steve won his first title in almost nine years when he took the Players Championship in Nuland in October. He also finished runner up in the European championship beating the likes of Adrian Lewis, Mark Walsh and James Wade en route to the final where he was defeated 11-3 by Phil Taylor. This result however gave Steve a place in the 2009 Grand Slam of Darts, where he progressed from the round robin stage courtesy of wins over Co Stompe and Kevin McDine before being comprehensibly outplayed by Simon Whitlock.
At the 2010 Grand Slam Of Darts Beaton produced a major upset by beating three-time defending champion Phil Taylor 16-14 in the quarter-finals, having trailed 13-9 and 14-11. Earlier in the week Beaton had needed to defeat Paul Nicholson 5-3 or better at the round robin stage to stay in the tournament (he won 5-1), and followed that up with a 10-6 win over Ted Hankey who had himself defeated Taylor in his group. Beaton was defeated by eventual champion Scott Waites 16-9 in the semi-final. Despite his good form in 2010 he was narrowly defeated in the first round of the 2011 PDC World Darts Championship by Mark Hylton eventually losing by 3 sets to 2.
[edit] Personal life and interests
Beaton currently resides in Earl Shilton, Leicestershire, where he lives with his wife Nanette, whom he married in 1993. They have no children. Away from the oche, Beaton can often be seen at Baden-Baden, his favourite racecourse. Although an extremely gentle man by nature, his favourite film is Rambo: First Blood. When he is not playing darts, he works as a driving instructor, and has been known to own such cars as an electric blue Peugeot 307 diesel, and a ravishing grey ford fiesta
[edit] World Championship record
- 1992 Last 32 lost to Chris Johns 1-3
- 1993 Semi Finals lost to Alan Warriner 2-5
- 1994 (BDO) Last 32 lost to Nick Gedney 2-3
- 1995 (BDO) Last 32 lost to Dave Askew 2-3
- 1996 (BDO) CHAMPION beat Richie Burnett 6-3
- 1997 (BDO) Semi Finals lost to Marshall James 4-5
- 1998 (BDO) Quarter Finals lost to Raymond van Barneveld 0-5
- 1999 (BDO) Last 16 lost to Steve Duke 0-3
- 2000 (BDO) Last 16 lost to Andy Fordham 0-3
- 2001 (BDO) Last 16 lost to Raymond van Barneveld 2-3
- 2002 (PDC) Last 16 lost to John Part 0-6
- 2003 (PDC) Last 32 lost to Dave Askew 3-4
- 2004 (PDC) Last 16 lost to Mark Dudbridge 1-4
- 2005 (PDC) Last 32 lost to Andy Hamilton 2-4
- 2006 (PDC) Last 64 lost to Jan van der Rassel 0-3
- 2007 (PDC) Last 32 lost to Terry Jenkins 3-4
- 2008 (PDC) Last 32 lost to James Wade 3-4
- 2009 (PDC) Last 64 lost to Alan Tabern 0-3
- 2010 (PDC) Last 32 lost to Andy Hamilton 1-4
- 2011 (PDC) Last 64 lost to Mark Hylton 2-3
- 2012 (PDC) Last 32 lost to Simon Whitlock 1-4
