Trina Gulliver

Catrina Elizabeth Gulliver (born 30 November 1969) is an English professional darts player.

She is the 10-time Women's World Professional Darts Champion of the British Darts Organisation (BDO).

Gulliver married Paul Gulliver in 1994, after nine years together, and they lived in Southam, but divorced in 2005 after eleven years of marriage.

After the break up of her marriage, Gulliver became a secret alcoholic and used to drink four bottles of wine a night.

She has spoken about her alcoholism and stated that, "I was lucky to survive".

Gulliver came out after her divorce, although she kept it a secret from her family because she felt that she was going to "lose my sponsors, friends and whether my family would understand".

From the introduction of the BDO Women's World Championship in 2001, Gulliver remained undefeated in the competition until her defeat in the 2008 Championship by Anastasia Dobromyslova.

During this undefeated run Gulliver beat Francis Hoenselaar of the Netherlands to win the title on five occasions.

Gulliver has the top three highest winning three dart averages in the Women's World Championship, all of which are higher than 90.

She also played in the men's event on several occasions, with a best finish of 12th (out of 20 entrants) in the 2001 edition.

Her nickname is Golden Girl and in 2003, she was named as the BBC Midlands Sports Personality of the Year.

The daughter of publicans, Gulliver was born in Warneford Hospital in Leamington Spa, and was brought up in the small town of Southam in Warwickshire.

She trained as a carpenter and joiner, and later taught carpentry and joinery at Mid-Warwickshire College, Leamington Spa.

Gulliver has been sponsored by the leading Global Darts Brand Winmau for over 10 Years, and in 2003 was named as the BBC Midlands Sports Personality of the Year.

During the 2008 tournament Trina stated on many occasions that she was not happy with the prize money and the game length compared to the men's competition.

In 2008 the women's champion only received £6,000, whereas the men's champion wins £95,000 and the male competition is first to seven sets whereas the women's is first to two.

2008 saw the publication of her autobiography, Golden Girl: The Autobiography of the Greatest Ever Ladies' Darts Player, which chronicles her ongoing rivalry with ladies' darts superstar and former Olympian Crissy Manley, wife of PDC player Peter Manley.

Gulliver was beaten in the 2009 World Championship Final by close friend Hoenselaar.

Despite this she did not enter the inaugural (and thus so far only) PDC Women's World Championship in 2010, that offered higher prize money than the BDO version.

In 2010 Gulliver defeated Hoenselaar, Deta Hedman and Rhian Edwards all 2–0 to become World Champion for the first time since 2007.

They signed a registered partnership in July 2010.

As of 19 September 2022, her website stated she is "Married to Nicole van Gils".

In 2011 Gulliver defeated Wendy Weinstadtler, Irene Armstrong and Rhian Edwards all 2–0 to successfully defend the Women's World Championship.

Gulliver won the women's British Penathlon eight times.

Gulliver's mother Muriel died on 5 January 2012, two days before the start of the BDO World Darts Championship.

Trina still took part in the competition, at the request of her mother before she died.

She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to darts and to charitable fundraising.

In March 2023, 'Trina' was gifted the World Championship trophy, to act as its custodian after being bought at auction by Peter Turrell of Leisure Promotions, sponsor of the World Senior Darts, at their event in Blackpool.

She then lived in Cheddar, Somerset until 2017 with her England ladies' darts colleague Sue Gulliver.