Kevin Painter

Kevin Painter (born 12 July 1967) is an English retired darts player, known as "The Artist".

His first County Appearance was against Staffordshire for Essex at the Runnymede Hall, Benfleet on Saturday 15 November as a Men's B Team player, where he won 2–0 in 16 and 21 darts, recording an average of 27.08 (81.24) Once an Essex county player, his first appearance on television was in the 1994 BDO World Championship, which was notable as the first BDO World Championship to follow the split in darts, where 16 players formed the World Darts Council (later Professional Darts Corporation) and their own world championship.

Painter was defeated in the first round 3–2 by Kevin Kenny.

During that year (1994) he also appeared on TV's Bullseye and won the pro's Bronze Bully for that year with a score of 380 (doubled up to £760 for charity).

He reached the second round of the 1995 championship before falling 3–0 to Martin Adams, but success followed later in 1995 with a win in the inaugural England Open and in 1997 he won the prestigious British Open.

Two more appearances in the second round of the BDO World Championship followed and in the 2000 championship he reached his first televised quarter-final, but lost 5–2 to the eventual champion Ted Hankey.

The new millennium marked more success for Painter with victory in the Swedish Open.

Only a month earlier he had made his debut in a PDC event – the 2000 World Grand Prix where he reached the second round, but was defeated 3–2 by Taylor.

Painter however did not become a member of the Professional Dart Players Association, the organisation that allows players to play in all PDC events, and therefore remained a BDO player.

In what would be his final appearance in the event, Painter once again reached the quarter-finals in the 2001 BDO World Championship before losing 5–2 to Andy Fordham.

Painter entered another PDC event, the 2001 World Matchplay, but lost in the first round before returning again in the 2001 World Grand Prix, where in a major shock he defeated Taylor in the first round.

Taylor had never before been defeated in this event and had not lost on television for two years prior to this loss.

This was also the first time that Taylor had been defeated in the first round of a televised PDC event.

Painter reached the quarter-finals before losing 6–1 to Dennis Smith.

Back in the BDO he made his best performance in the 2001 Winmau World Masters, reaching the quarter-finals and repeated that placing in the 2001 Zuiderduin Masters, in what was his last BDO event.

Painter made his debut in the PDC World Championship in the 2002 event but lost in the first round to Ronnie Baxter.

Despite a victory in the 2002 Bob Anderson Classic, he failed to make any real headway in the televised PDC events until he reached his first world championship semi-final in the 2003 PDC World Championship, where he lost 6–4 to eventual champion John Part.

He is arguably most famous for finishing as the runner-up to Phil Taylor in the 2004 PDC World Championship final, now widely credited as one of the greatest televised matches in the history of the sport.

Painter's finest hour came in the 2004 World Championship.

Painter was knocked out in the semi-finals by eventual champion Part, his best performance since when he was the runner-up in 2004.

He reached the quarter-finals of the 2005 Las Vegas Desert Classic and the 2005 World Championship despite falling victim to a leg injury which damaged his form and kept him out of many tournaments.

Painter's form dropped substantially in 2006.

Despite opening strongly with a victory in the North West UK Open final and a second successive appearance in the quarter-finals of the 2006 World Championship, his form began to stagnate around the middle of the year.

What followed was the longest televised darts match ever and for a time the most watched PDC darts match (820,000 viewers) until the 2007 final.

Despite Painter leading 4–1 at one point, the match went to 6–6 in sets and 5–5 in legs in the final set, so a sudden-death leg was needed to decide a winner.

Taylor won it and became the champion, but Painter, who had a three-dart out-shot to win the championship at 2–1 and 3–2 in the final set, while also leaving himself double 16 at 4–3 in the final set without ever getting a dart at it, gained fame for his participation in such an epic final.

The following year was a strong one for Painter where he reached the quarter-finals in the UK Open and the semi-finals in the Las Vegas Desert Classic, his best performance in these tournaments to date.

Painter suffered first or early round defeats in most of the major tournaments and his ranking had dropped to 18 by the beginning of 2007.

This was exacerbated by a defeat in the first round of that year's World Championship to his former practice partner Colin Osborne.

The first half of 2007 saw the early round defeats in televised majors continue, though many of them were to Taylor and then-World Champion Raymond van Barneveld.

Painter suffered another first round loss in the 2007 World Grand Prix, but this would prove to be the turning point.

Sky Sports pundit and friend Rod Harrington warned that Painter could "slip into anonymity" if he did not recover his form.

Painter attributed the "perception that he was finished" to a renewed determination and subsequent rise in form.

November 2007 saw a strong return to form for Painter, where he reached the quarter-finals of the first Grand Slam of Darts despite being entered as a wild card.

The 2008 World Championship proved to be a monumental success for Painter, where he was responsible for knocking out defending champion Raymond van Barneveld in the last 16.

As the 10th seed, he began his campaign by beating Paul Williams before he defeated 7th seed Baxter in the fourth round.

He then beat Mark Dudbridge before a whitewash of former world champion Bob Anderson followed later on in the semi-finals.

Painter then met top seed Taylor in the final.

He was also the winner of the Players Championship Finals in 2011.

Painter started playing darts around the age of 17.