James Wade

For the Spanish-American War general, see James F. Wade.

James Wade
Personal information
Full name	James Martin Wade
Nickname	The Machine
Born	(1983-04-06) 6 April 1983 Aldershot, England
Home town	Aldershot
Darts information
Playing darts since	2001
Darts	20g Unicorn James Wade
Laterality	Left-handed
Walk-on music	Bonkers by Dizzee Rascal ft. Armand van Helden
Organisation (see split in darts)
BDO	2001–2004
PDC	2004 – present
Current world ranking	3
WDF major events – best performances
World Ch'ship	Round 2 2004
World Masters	Last 64 2002, 2003
World Trophy	Round 2 2003
Int. Darts League	Quarter Finalist 2004, 2007
PDC premier events – best performances
World Ch'ship	Semi Finalist 2009, 2012
World Matchplay	Winner 2007
World Grand Prix	Winner 2007, 2010
UK Open	Winner 2008, 2011
Grand Slam	Runner Up 2010
European Ch'ship	Semi Finalist 2009
Premier League	Winner 2009
Ch'ship League	Winner 2010
Desert Classic	Runner Up 2008
PC Finals	Semi Finalist 2009
Other tournament wins
Tournament	Years
Players Ch'ship UK Open Regional (NW) UK Open Regional UK Open Regional UK Open Regional (WIG) Swiss Open Irish Masters Norfolk Open Players Ch'ship Players Ch'ship Players Ch'ship Derby	2008 2007, 2009 2007 2007 2010 2002 2005 2006 2008 2008 (Lei) 2009
Other achievements
2006 PDC Young Player of the Year 2006 Three Nine dart finishes during a calendar year (a record) 2007 PDC Player of the Year
Updated on 23 October 2007.

James Martin Wade (born 6 April 1983 in Aldershot, Hampshire) is an English professional darts player, currently playing in the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). He became the youngest player ever to win a major PDC title at the World Matchplay in July 2007. He has since won the 2007 World Grand Prix, the 2008 and 2011 UK Opens, the 2009 Premier League, the 2010 World Grand Prix and 2010 Championship League Darts, and has been at a career-high ranking of second in the PDC Order of Merit. James Wade is officially the second most successful player in PDC history, after Phil Taylor.

Early career

Wade reached the final of the British Classic in 2001 at the age of just 18, losing to John Walton but the following year he won the Swiss Open and then made his television debut at the 2003 Lakeside World Championship, but lost 2–3 in the first round to Dennis Harbour having missed eight darts to win the match in the fourth set. In other BDO Open events during 2003, he reached the Norway Open final, Belgian Open semi-finals and Dutch Open quarter finals.

At the 2004 Lakeside World Championship, he beat Shaun Greatbatch 3–0 in the first round, before losing to Darryl Fitton in the second round. Later in 2004, he reached a series of quarter-finals including the German Open, the Isle of Man Open and the prestigious International Darts League in May – which was his last tournament as a BDO affiliated player.

PDC switch

In May 2004, despite having qualified for the final stages of many BDO tournaments, Wade took the decision to forfeit his automatic place in the 2004 World Darts Trophy and 2005 BDO World Championship to join the Professional Darts Players Association (PDPA) and the PDC circuit.

He made his PDC World Darts Championship début in 2005, losing in the first round to Mark Holden. He bounced back from this to win the Irish Masters in February and reach the last 16 of the UK Open later that year. He also qualified for the Las Vegas Desert Classic (beating the experienced Ronnie Baxter) and the World Grand Prix during the year as well. He also qualified for the 2006 World Championship, losing again in the first round, this time 3–2 to Wayne Jones, who would go on to reach the semi-finals, despite having won the first six legs for a two-set lead.

Wade reached the last 16 of the 2007 PDC World Championship losing to Terry Jenkins having earlier beaten New Zealand qualifier Warren French and Dave Ladley.

Major breakthrough

He made his major breakthrough on television during the 2006 World Matchplay in July. He sensationally reached the final, beating four experienced and respected darts players, in his first ever appearance at the Winter Gardens. He beat Denis Ovens in the first round 10–1, having had darts to make it a 10–0 whitewash. In the second round he beat former World Championship finalist Kevin Painter 13–9, ending one leg with two double-20s to cause a minor controversy, and beat Chris Mason 16–4 in his quarter-final. In the semi-finals he came back from 1–5 down to beat Roland Scholten 19–17 in a tiebreaker, which requires the winner to win by two clear legs. In the final he played Phil Taylor but despite being 8–5 up, he lost 18–11.

He then returned to Blackpool in 2007 to claim the title – his first major televised tournament success and became the youngest player ever to win a PDC televised event in doing so. His route to the title and £50,000 cheque saw him beat Wayne Jones, Dennis Priestley, Mervyn King, Adrian Lewis and Terry Jenkins (who beat Taylor in the semi-final) in the final.

Although Wade's victory was nothing short of emphatic over the ever-tenacious Jenkins, many believe his semi-final victory over Lewis was one of the finest performances ever seen at the Winter Gardens . He consistently checked out ton-plus scores whilst Lewis, fresh from defeating world champion Raymond van Barneveld, having a 3-dart average of over 100, was unable to keep up with the fast-improving Wade.

Wade also won the next PDC major tournament – the 2007 World Grand Prix in Dublin in October beating van Barneveld by 5 sets to 1 in the semi-final and repeating his Blackpool success over Jenkins in the final.

Wade's aforementioned successes in 2007 were rewarded with him winning the 2007 PDC Player of the Year. Wade became the second recipient of this award, following in the footsteps of Taylor in 2006. He was presented with it at the annual PDC Awards Dinner in January 2008.

Wade reached the quarter-finals of the 2008 PDC World Championship, being defeated 5 sets to 4 in a close encounter against John Part, who went on to win the tournament.

In January 2008, Wade became the first player to defeat Taylor in the Premier League, winning the match 8 legs to 6. Taylor however exacted revenge with a 16–8 victory in the final on 26 May 2008 after Wade had defeated van Barneveld in the semi-final.

On 8 June 2008, Wade beat American Gary Mawson 11–7 in the final to win the 2008 UK Open, claiming his third major trophy within a year. The following month, he reached the finals of the Las Vegas Desert Classic, losing 13–7 to Taylor. Then in July reached his 3rd World Matchplay final in a row, losing for the 2nd time in 3 years in the final to Taylor 18–9, making this the 3rd major final loss of the year against Taylor.

In the 2009 PDC World Championship, Wade reached a stage further than the previous year, reaching the semi-finals before losing 4–6 to van Barneveld.

Wade won the 2009 Premier League Darts tournament, defeating Mervyn King 13–8 at the Wembley Arena. However, he failed to defend his UK Open title in 2009 after losing to Peter Manley 9–8 in the third round. He then failed to reach the World Matchplay final for the first time, losing in the quarter-finals to Ronnie Baxter.

Wade lost to an on-fire Simon Whitlock in the quarter-finals of the 2010 World Championship. Whitlock won 5–3 in sets.

Defending his Premier League title, Wade reached the final of the 2010 Premier League, where he played against Phil Taylor. Taylor won 10–8, hitting two nine-dart finishes during the match.

Wade won the 2010 World Grand Prix, beating Adrian Lewis 6–3 in the final. Four days later, he won his second major tournament inside a week by defeating Taylor 6–5 in the 2010 Championship League Darts final.

Wade reached another major final in 2010 at the Grand Slam, seeing both Terry Jenkins and Mervyn King squander match darts against him before Wade himself threw away an 8–0 lead against BDO player Scott Waites as Waites won 16–12.

2011 Season

Despite the loss at the Grand Slam, Wade was touted by many as the favourite to win the 2011 World Championship due to his Grand Prix and Champions League Darts victories as well as Taylor's slight dip in form. However, Wade was beaten by world number 47 Mensur Suljovic 4–2 in the second round. He got of to a poor start in the Premier League of Darts losing 8–3 to an on form Mark Webster he went on to defeat World Champion Adrian Lewis 8–6 in week 2 and then lost 8–5 to Simon Whitlock, during the match he took some stick from the Belfast crowd. He regained some form in the latter weeks of the League drawing with Raymond Van Barneveld 7–7 while averaging over 100. In June he won the 2011 UK Open Darts title after an 11–8 win against Wes Newton.

2012 Season

Wade dropped just one set to reach the quarter-finals of the 2012 World Championship, but was then involved in two of the best games ever witnessed at the event. He played John Part in the last 8 and raced into a 3-1 lead before the Canadian won three sets in a row. Wade took the game into a deciding set and the players broke each others throws twice to require a sudden-leg, which he managed to win by taking out 85 with Part on 40. He played defending champion Adrian Lewis in the semi-finals and looked to be heading for his first PDC World final as he led 5-1. Lewis pulled a set back, before Wade had a dart at double 18 to win the match. He missed and it proved to be a pivotal moment as Lewis took the set and reeled off 10 straight legs to complete a sensational comeback 5-6. He arned automatic qualification for the 2012 Premier League Darts but lost his first game 8-5 to first timer Andy Hamilton.

Nicknames

Whilst it is somewhat traditional for a darts player to adopt a sobriquet, Wade has adopted several in his short career so far. His first nickname, The Gladiator was changed following his nine-dart exploits in 2006 to 009 – a take on James Bond's 007. This was used during the 2007 PDC World Darts Championship.

In November 2007, during the 2007 Grand Slam of Darts – he was introduced on television graphics as having "no nickname". In December 2007, following a competition which invited fans to provide him with a new nickname, Wade became known as Spectacular. A play on the fact that Wade is one of the few players who wears spectacles when he plays. For his Premier League debut in January 2008 he unveiled another nickname – "The Machine" which is now regarded as his permanent nickname and used in his walk on in all tournaments.

Nine dart finishes

He became the first player to hit three tournament nine-dart finishes in a calendar year during 2006. They came at the North-West UK Open Regional Final in March, the PDPA Players Championship at Hayling Island in June and he completed his hat-trick at the Vauxhall Men's Open in November. None of these achievements were in televised competitions.

Wade came within one dart of achieving the first ever nine-darter with a double start at the 2007 World Grand Prix in Dublin. In the semi-final against van Barneveld he hit double top to open the leg, then six treble 20s, treble 17 then missed a bullseye for a unique nine-darter.

On 20 November 2008, Wade completed his first live nine-darter hitting two 180s then T20, T19 and D12 against Gary Anderson in the second round of the 2008 Grand Slam of Darts which was shown on ITV4. However, Anderson went on to win the match 10–8, therefore Wade became the first man to hit a nine-dart finish in a major televised tournament in the UK and then go on to lose the match. (Michael van Gerwen had previously done so in a tournament on Dutch television.) Wade was also the first left-handed player to hit a live nine-darter.

Outside darts

Wade quit his job at a garage in Aldershot twelve days before the World Matchplay 2006, to concentrate on becoming a full-time professional darts player.

Wade dated Soccer AM presenter Helen Chamberlain but the pair split after roughly a year together. The pair had reportedly "drifted apart" from each other. Wade has admitted it hit him hard, affecting his darts.

World Championship Performances

• 2003 (BDO) – First Round lost to Dennis Harbour 2–3
• 2004 (BDO) – Second Round lost to Darryl Fitton 1–3
• 2005 (PDC) – First Round lost to Mark Holden 0–3
• 2006 (PDC) – First Round lost to Wayne Jones 2–3
• 2007 (PDC) – Third Round lost to Terry Jenkins 3–4
• 2008 (PDC) – Quarter-finalist lost to John Part 4-5
• 2009 (PDC) – Semi-finalist lost to Raymond van Barneveld 4–6
• 2010 (PDC) – Quarter-finalist lost to Simon Whitlock 3–5
• 2011 (PDC) – Second Round lost to Mensur Suljovic 2–4
• 2012 (PDC) - Semi-finalist lost to Adrian Lewis 5-6

Career finals

PDC premier event finals: 13 (7 titles, 6 runner-ups)

Legend World Championship (0–0) World Matchplay (1–2) Premier League (1–2) Other (5–2) Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent in the final Score1 Runner-up 1. 2006 World Matchplay Phil Taylor 11–18 (l) Winner 1. 2007 World Matchplay Terry Jenkins 18–7 (l) Winner 2. 2007 World Grand Prix Terry Jenkins 6–3 (s) Runner-up 2. 2008 Premier League Darts Phil Taylor 8–16 (l) Winner 3. 2008 UK Open Gary Mawson 11–7 (l) Runner-up 3. 2008 Las Vegas Desert Classic Phil Taylor 7–13 (l) Runner-up 4. 2008 World Matchplay Phil Taylor 9–18 (l) Winner 4. 2009 Premier League Darts Mervyn King 13–8 (l) Runner-up 5. 2010 Premier League Darts Phil Taylor 8–10 (l) Winner 5. 2010 World Grand Prix (2) Adrian Lewis 6–3 (s) Winner 6. 2010 Championship League Darts Phil Taylor 6–5 (l) Runner-up 6. 2010 Grand Slam of Darts Scott Waites 12–16 (l) Winner 7. 2011 UK Open (2) Wes Newton 11–8 (l) References 5. http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/sport/sportdarts/3600811/I-lay-in-bed-all-day-crying-I-wished-I-could-have-a-heart-attack-and-die.html External links James Wade's official web site James Wade wins PDC Player Of The Year award