Dennis Priestley

Dennis Priestley (born 16 July 1950) is an English former professional darts player.

He had defeated defending champion Taylor in his quarter-finals and 1988 champion Bob Anderson in his semi-final.

In 1989 he reached the final of the News of the World Darts Championship where he was beaten by the experienced Dave Whitcombe.

Priestley then reached the semi-finals of the 1990 Winmau World Masters, losing to eventual champion Phil Taylor.

He won two world championships, and was the first player to win both the BDO and WDC (now PDC) world championships, in 1991 and 1994 respectively.

He was nicknamed "The Menace", after the Beano character Dennis the Menace, and reflected this by wearing red and black and using red and black flights.

Born in Mexborough, West Riding of Yorkshire, Priestley was originally a coal merchant by trade, and did not enter professional darts until he was almost 40 years old.

Shortly after becoming a newsagent, Priestley won the 1991 Embassy World Championship, after beating Eric Bristow 6–0 in the final.

Between 1991 and 1994, Priestley was the only player to win more than one grand slam/major title (he won three), while he also claimed more top professional events on either circuit than any other player and attained the number-one ranking.

Priestley won the 1991 BDO title in his first appearance in the main draw of the Lakeside event, while he won the inaugural PDC World Professional Darts Championship in 1994.

In his World Championship debut in 1991, he set a new tournament record for 180s (25).

He won the 1992 Winmau World Masters and also picked up many BDO Open events between 1991 and 1993.

In 1992, Priestley entered the 1993 Embassy World Championship as the number-one seed.

That record was broken by Mike Gregory in 1992.

Priestley was a founder member of the World Darts Council (WDC) which split from the British Darts Organisation in 1993.

As a consequence, Priestley was precluded from assuming the role of England captain which he had been awarded shortly beforehand.

This high point was surrounded by several wins on the WDC's new professional circuit (including the Skol Matchplay, UK Matchplay, Antwerp Open, and Samson Darts Classic) in 1993 and 1994.

Priestley won the inaugural WDC World Darts Championship in 1994.

Priestley has also been a three-times World Matchplay runner-up, losing to American Larry Butler in 1994, Taylor in 1995 and Peter Evison in 1996.

Priestley held the number-one spot in the PDC world rankings between November 1994 and April 1995 and was seeded number-one for the WDC World Championships of 1995 and 1997.

In a match-up of 1994 World Champions, Priestley comfortably defeated Part 3–0 in sets.

The World Matchplay was often considered as Priestley's 'bogey' event, as he has never won it despite reaching the final in the tournament's first three years.

In the 1994 final, Priestley held a 7–3 in legs lead over Butler and was on course to victory, when the American alerted Priestley's attention to a distraction in the arena; Butler's intervention could have had an effect on Priestley, as Butler won eight of the next nine legs to lead 11–8, and Butler eventually won 16–12.

The following year, Priestley suffered the first of five PDC major final defeats to Taylor, losing 11–16 in legs.

Priestley's ascendancy was forcefully ended by Taylor's World Championship and World Matchplay triumphs in 1995.

He did, however, notch up a further major televised title later that year – the inaugural PDC World Pairs partnering Bristow.

Since then, he has been a PDC World Championship runner-up four times, in 1996, 1997, 1998 and 2000, losing to Taylor on all four occasions.

His 1996 World Championship Final with Taylor is often seen as one of the best matches in the history of the PDC.

Although Priestley hit 15 180s and averaged 101.48 in the match, he was edged out 4–6 by the ruthless brilliance of Taylor.

Priestley struck 14 180s, had a 10-dart leg and led two-sets-to-nil in the following year's final.

Again, however, it was to no avail as Taylor won 6–3.

Perhaps for matches such as these, Taylor stated in his autobiography that Priestley is the "best player [he has] ever faced".

Taylor makes a similar reference to Priestley on the biography section of his website.

Despite living in the shadow of Taylor for much of his career, Priestley nonetheless has accomplished some unique achievements.

He is the only man to date to win both the BDO and PDC World Championships at his first attempt.

He is the first man to average over 100 in a World Championship final, when he averaged 101.48 in the 1996 WDC World Championship Final in a 4–6 loss to Taylor, despite Taylor's average being almost three points lower at 98.52.

In 1997, Priestley won the British Classic in Blackpool, notable for being the first BDO event which PDC players were allowed to enter – as a result of the Tomlin Order – since the 1993 split.

Priestley also took the pairs title with Taylor.

At around this time, Priestley also took part in a 'Battle of the Champions' contest to mark the resolution of the dispute between the governing bodies.

In his first-round tie against Jocky Wilson, he set a new record for the highest match average (102.6) at the championship, which stood until 2004.