Wes Newton

Wes Newton
Personal information
Full name	Wesley Newton
Nickname	The Warrior
Born	(1977-08-27) 27 August 1977 Blackpool, England
Home town	Fleetwood
Darts information
Darts	22g Unicorn
Laterality	Right-handed
Walk-on music	Crazy Crazy Nights (1987) by Kiss
Organisation (see split in darts)
PDC	2004 - present
Current world ranking	6
PDC premier events – best performances
World Ch'ship	Quarter Finalist 2011
World Matchplay	Quarter Finalist 2011
World Grand Prix	Round 2 (3) 2005, 2009, 2010
UK Open	Finalist 2011
Grand Slam	Group Stages 2008, 2010
European Ch'ship	Last 16 (2) 2010, 2011
Ch'ship League	Initial groups, 5th, 2008
Desert Classic	Semi Finalist (2) 2005, 2006
US Open/WSoD	Last 32 2007
PC Finals	Quarter Finalist (2) 2010, 2011
Other tournament wins
Tournament	Years
Grand Slam WCQ Las Vegas Open Players Championship Players Championship x 3 Players Championship	2008 2009 2009 2010 2011

Wesley "Wes" Newton (born 27 August 1977 in Blackpool, Lancashire) is an English darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation tournaments.

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 5-0 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 4-2 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.

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.

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 11-8. As a result of his run to the final, he qualified for the 2011 Grand Slam of Darts by right. After the UK Open, it was announced that Newton had appointed three-time world finalist Peter Manley as his manager.

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.

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. 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.

At the first UK Open qualifier, 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.

Personal life

He currently resides in Fleetwood, and uses the nickname The Warrior for his matches, having used the nickname Av' It until late 2010. 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 a son, Fraser Wesley, who was born in June 2011.

World Championship Performances

• 2005 (PDC) - First Round lost to Gerry Convery 0-3
• 2006 (PDC) - Second Round lost to Kevin Painter 2-3
• 2007 (PDC) - Second Round lost to Colin Osborne 2-4
• 2008 (PDC) - First Round lost to Jamie Caven 0-3
• 2009 (PDC) - Second Round lost to Raymond van Barneveld 1-4
• 2010 (PDC) - Second Round lost to Adrian Lewis 2-4
• 2011 (PDC) - Quarter Final lost to Terry Jenkins 4-5
• 2012 (PDC) - Second Round lost to Justin Pipe 3-4

External Links

• Official website
• Wes Newton profile Planet Darts
• Player profile for Wes Newton from Dartsdatabase