Mark Webster

Mark Webster (born 12 August 1983) is a Welsh former professional darts player.

Nicknamed Webby and The Spider, he played in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events.

He defeated Dutchman Willy van de Wiel 3–0 in the first round but his title reign came to an end in the second round when he was beaten 4–0 by 2001 Lakeside Champion John Walton.

He first came to prominence in 2006, winning the 2006 WDF Europe Cup, and making the semi-finals of the 2006 Winmau World Masters.

In other BDO/WDF tournaments during 2006, he won the Northern Ireland Open and reached the semi-finals of the Welsh Open.

However, he underperformed in the subsequent 2007 World Championship, losing on his debut to Tony Eccles 3–0 in the first round.

In May 2007, he beat Phil Taylor in the group stages on his way to the final of the International Darts League – however he lost 9–13 to Gary Anderson.

However, he added to his growing collection of titles by winning the World Cup Singles in October 2007.

Webster began his career on the British Darts Organisation (BDO) circuit, winning the BDO World Championship in 2008.

Despite his lack of major television tournament wins, Webster entered the 2008 BDO World Championship as the number one seed due to his success in open events.

This time around, Webster justified his status as joint-favourite for the title (alongside Anderson), as he beat Ian Jones in the first round, popular qualifier Glenn Moody in the last 16 and ninth seed Darryl Fitton in the quarter-finals.

He played defending champion Martin Adams in the semi-finals, beating him 6–4 and earning a place in the final.

He then beat Simon Whitlock 7–5 in the final on 13 January 2008, to become the third Welshman to win the World Championship of either organisation, after Leighton Rees and Richie Burnett, and only the second left-handed player to win the World Championship in either the PDC or BDO.

Webster did not play many tournaments in 2008, instead choosing to remain in college to earn his plumbing degree.

He did though retain the WDF Europe Cup, beating Northern Ireland's Daryl Gurney in the final.

Webster also had a great run into the quarter finals of the 2008 Grand Slam of Darts.

After surprisingly losing his opening group game to Colin McGarry, he went on to whitewash Michael van Gerwen 5–0 and despite losing to Mervyn King, Webster went through to the knockout stages on leg difference after McGarry failed to beat van Gerwen.

Webster then demolished PDC World Champion John Part 10–2 – in a battle of the incumbent world champions – to reach the quarter finals where he lost again to King.

Webster then suffered a last 16 exit in the 2008 World Masters, losing to Ross Montgomery and then went out in the group stages of the Zuiderduin Masters.

Having beaten Martin Atkins, he lost to wildcard entrant Henny van der Ster who claimed the quarter final spot ahead of Webster and went on to reach the semi-finals.

He became a full-time professional in 2009, having previously been a fully qualified registered plumber.

He now works as an analyst and commentator on Sky Sports and ITV.

Webster made progress once he was aged 12 and could play in Local Darts Leagues in public houses in his native North Wales.

He started playing for the local "Golden Lion" team like both of his parents, and still plays regularly for his pub team "The Masons"

Webster entered the 2009 BDO World Championship as the number two seed.

However, it was announced on 5 February 2009 that Webster had joined the PDC, making his debut at the double-header Players Championship events in Gladbeck at the end of February.

In his PDC debut he did not manage to earn any prize money—losing 6–1 to Ronnie Baxter in the opening round.

The following day however, Webster got through to the second round of the Sunday event in Gladbeck, earning his first prize money as a PDC player.

Having started from scratch in the PDC rankings, Webster had to build up ranking points by entering the PDC Pro Tour events.

His best result came at the UK Open Scottish Regional Qualifier in March when he reached the semi-final.

He also managed two quarter final appearances in Players Championship Events in the East Midlands in April and Atlanta in August.

By 18 October he had played in 31 Pro Tour events.

His PDC Prize Money, boosted by a run to the last 16 of the UK Open had totalled £10,800 and his ranking had improved to 71.

With rumours persisting over a potential switch to the PDC, Webster had remained defiant that he would return to Lakeside in 2010.

In his debut at the PDC World Championship in 2010, Webster defeated established players including Mark Walsh, Peter Manley and Co Stompé to reach the semi-final, where he was outplayed by Taylor.

Webster did, however, earn the consolation of third place via a playoff match with van Barneveld, earning an extra £20,000 in the process and entering the top 32 in the PDC rankings for the first time.

He began 2010 poorly with repeated early exits in Floor events but found form by a few quarter final appearances and by reaching consecutive semi-finals in a Players Championship and UK Open Qualifier 8 in Wigan during May.

This cemented his qualification for the 2010 UK Open Darts.

However he was knocked out in his first match against Tony Eccles.

After the UK Open his poor floor form returned in which he failed to progress past the last 32 in any event until the 2010 World Matchplay Darts in which he knocked out seventh seed Adrian Lewis 11–9 in the first round but was beaten 13–9 by Co Stompé This earned him £7,500 towards the order of merit.