Jacobus Wilhelmus "Co" Stompé (born 10 September 1962) is a Dutch former professional

darts Darts or dart-throwing is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small projectile point, sharp-pointed projectile, missiles known as dart (missile), darts at a round shooting target, target known as a #Dartboard, dar ...

player. He was nicknamed The Matchstick because of his almost bald head and very thin appearance, making him look like a

matchstick A match is a tool for starting a fire. Typically, matches are made of small wooden sticks or stiff paper. One end is coated with a material that can be ignited by friction generated by striking the match against a suitable surface. Wooden matc ...

. He was also one of very few professionals who played in longsleeved shirts.

Darts career

BDO

For years, Stompé was considered the third best Dutch darts player behind

Raymond van Barneveld Raymond van Barneveld (born 20 April 1967) is a Dutch professional darts player. Nicknamed Barney, although originally known as The Man, he is one of the most successful darts players in history. Van Barneveld is a five-time World Darts Champ ...

and

Roland Scholten Roland Scholten (born 11 January 1965) is a Dutch former professional darts player who played in events of the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) and British Darts Organisation (BDO). Nicknamed The Tripod and The Flying Dutchman, Scholten turne ...

. After reaching the semi-finals of the 2000 World Championship, he dropped back behind a younger emerging Dutch group of players. Stompé came back to fame with the defeat of reigning BDO champion

Jelle Klaasen Jelle Klaasen (born 17 October 1984), nicknamed The Cobra, is a Dutch professional darts player who plays in the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) and World Darts Federation (WDF) events. In 2006, he became the youngest darts player to win the ...

in the first round of the 2007 World Championship. Towards the end of his BDO career, Stompé also acted as a darts commentator for Dutch commercial television station

SBS6 SBS6 is a Dutch free-to-air, free-to-cable commercial television channel, TV channel and is a part of Talpa TV, formerly known as SBS Broadcasting B.V. and now owned by Talpa Network. Other channels of the group in the Netherlands are Net5, Vero ...

PDC

On 11 June 2008 it was announced that Stompé had joined the

Professional Darts Corporation The Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) is a professional darts organisation in the United Kingdom, established in 1992 when a group of leading players split from the British Darts Organisation (BDO) to form what was initially called the World ...

circuit, and had to join the PDC rankings at 227. He made his PDC debut in the two PDPA Players Championship tournaments in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

. The first tournament started with a bye into the last 64, due to van Barneveld not taking part. He lost to Matt Clark. The next day saw him beat

Tony Ayres Tony Ayres (born 16 July 1961) is an Australian showrunner, screenwriter, director in television and feature film. He is most notable for his films '' Walking on Water'' and ''The Home Song Stories'', as well his work in television, including ...

and

Peter Manley Peter David Manley (born 7 March 1962) is an English former professional darts player who played in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events from July 1996 until 2017. He won one major title, the Las Vegas Desert Classic, in 2003, and twi ...

before losing in the last 32 stage to

Kirk Shepherd Kirk Shepherd (born 5 October 1986) is an English former professional darts player who competed in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) tournaments. He was the youngest player ever to reach the final of the World Professional Darts Championship ...

. He then qualified for the 2008 Las Vegas Desert Classic but lost in the first round to

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

. Stompé won the 2008 PDC

German Darts Championship The German Darts Championship is a Professional Darts Corporation event that takes place in Germany as part of the PDC European Tour. Since 2013, it has been held at Halle 39 in Hildesheim, after previously being held in Berlin Berlin ( , ) ...

, beating Phil Taylor 4–2 in the final. Both players averaged well in excess of 100; Stompé averaged 107.28, while Taylor averaged 108.09. The win earned him a spot in the 2009 Grand Slam of Darts and also earned him a place in the 2009 World Championship qualifying through the Continental Europe Order of Merit. He originally qualified through Dutch broadcaster

's wildcard place which then went to

Remco van Eijden Remco van Eijden (born 12 September 1977) is a Dutch former darts player. Career Van Eijden previously played in the British Darts Organisation and he played in the 2008 BDO World Darts Championship, beating fellow Dutchman Mario Robbe in th ...

as a result. He defeated 2007 semi-finalist

Andy Jenkins Andrew Jenkins (born 11 March 1971) is an English professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He was nicknamed "Rocky" due to his rough personality. Jenkins has reached high rankings in the PDC, but ha ...

in the first round. He also defeated

Alan Tabern "The Saint" Alan Tabern (born 29 September 1966) is an English darts player who plays in events of the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). Darts career A left-hander, Tabern made his PDC World Championship debut in 2006 with a surprising ...

, the ninth seed in the second round and his impressive form in the championship continued with a 4–0 win over eighth seed

Wayne Mardle Wayne Elliot Mardle (born 10 May 1973) is an English former professional darts player who played in events of the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) and British Darts Organisation (BDO). He was runner-up in three PDC majors, losing to Phil ...

in the third round. The win set up a quarter final encounter with Taylor, losing 5–0. Stompé then qualified for the Desert Classic for the second successive year. He defeated

Colin Osborne Colin Osborne (born 19 June 1975) is an English professional darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. In 2009, he won the Championship League and reached the final of the UK Open. Darts career Osborne has won two ...

in the first round but lost in round two to Raymond van Barneveld. He then suffered first round losses in the World Matchplay to

Adrian Lewis Adrian Lewis (born 21 January 1985) is an English professional darts player currently playing in the PDC. He is a two-time PDC World Darts Champion, winning in 2011 and 2012. He is nicknamed Jackpot, as he won a jackpot gambling in Las Vegas ...

and in the European Championship to Gary Anderson and also went out at the group stage of the Grand Slam of Darts. His defence of the German Darts Championship ended in the last 32 with a loss to

Ronnie Baxter Ronnie Baxter (born 5 February 1961) is an English former professional darts player who competed in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He used the nickname "The Rocket" for his matches. Baxter was known for his fast robotic throwing a ...

. At the 2010 World Championship, Stompé defeated

Steve Maish Stephen Maish (born 22 November 1963 in Southend, Essex) is a retired English professional darts player who competed in Professional Darts Corporation events. He used the nickname Mr Magic for his matches. Career Maish made his televised deb ...

, Mervyn King and

Mark Dudbridge Mark "Flash" Dudbridge (born 11 January 1973) is an English professional darts player. He appeared in the 2005 Premier League Darts after reaching the final of the 2005 PDC World Darts Championship. He also is a former World Master and has r ...

to reach the quarter finals once more but was defeated by Mark Webster. He then reached the quarter finals of the 2010 World Matchplay, defeating

Andy Hamilton Andrew Neil Hamilton (born 28 May 1954) is a British comedian, game show panellist, television director, comedy screenwriter, radio dramatist, novelist and actor. Early life and education Hamilton was born in Fulham, southwest London. He ...

and Mark Webster before losing to Raymond van Barneveld. On 18 October that year, Stompé broke into the PDC Top 16 for the first time, dropping out three weeks later. In December, he partnered van Barneveld in the Netherlands team which won the inaugural

PDC World Cup of Darts The PDC World Cup of Darts is a team darts tournament organised by the Professional Darts Corporation, and was one of the three new tournaments introduced into the PDC calendar in 2010. It is broadcast live by Sky Sports. Later that month, Stompé was knocked out of the 2011 World Championship in the first round, losing 1–3 to Peter Wright. Stompé comfortably beat Michael Smith 3–0 in the first round of the 2012 World Championship. He was bitten by a dog over the Christmas period and couldn't replicate the form he showed days earlier as he lost 1–4 in the second round to

Terry Jenkins Terry Jenkins (born 26 September 1963) is an English former professional darts player who was nicknamed The Bull, having previously used the name "Tucker" for his matches. He reached number three in the world rankings and was a runner-up in nin ...

, hitting just 28% of his doubles. 2012 proved to be a disappointing year for Stompé as he could not reach a single quarter-final out of the 25 tournaments he played, with his best finishes being last 16 defeats in Pro Tour events. Stompé dropped out of the top 32 during 2012, but qualified for the 2013 World Championship by finishing fifth on the European Order of Merit, taking the first of four spots for non-qualified players. He lost 0–3 to Paul Nicholson in the first round. After the tournament he was world ranked number 40. Stompé lost 5–4 to

Michael Mansell Michael Alexander Mansell (born 5 June 1951 in northern Tasmania) is a Tasmanian Aboriginal leader who, as an activist and lawyer, has worked for social, political and legal changes to improve the lives and social standing of Tasmanian Aborigina ...

in the second round of the

UK Open The Cazoo UK Open is a ranking major darts tournament held annually at the Butlins Minehead Resort by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) in England. Often referred to as the "FA Cup of darts", the UK Open replicates the abolition of seedin ...

. He only played in four more events during the rest of the year with his final PDC tournament coming in September.

BDO return

Stompe returned to the BDO in 2014. He made his return to high-profile televised BDO tournaments at the Zuiderduin Masters.

PDC return

In December 2017,

RTL 7 RTL 7 is a Dutch free-to-cable television channel that was launched as ''Veronica'' on 1 September 1995. RTL 7 is RTL Nederland's "men's channel" with action films, reality television about crime and professions, soccer, motorsport and talk sho ...

announced that Stompé would take part in qualifying school in early 2018 in an attempt to regain his tour card, he postponed this attempted stating at the time that he had had 'too many other things on his mind', along with his son Co Stompe Jnr he attempted to win a tour card in 2019, neither of them were able to do so.

Personal life

Co is married to his second wife Danielle. He proposed to her on stage after winning the

WDF World Cup The WDF World Cup is a major darts tournament organized by the World Darts Federation and has been held biennially since 1977. The tournament has featured men's events since the beginning, while women's events were added in 1983 and youth events in ...

with the Netherlands. Stompé's son, also called Co (born 1991), plays on the PDC Youth Tour, and reached the final of an event in

Crawley Crawley () is a large town and borough in West Sussex, England. It is south of London, north of Brighton and Hove, and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Crawley covers an area of and had a population of 106,597 at the time of th ...

in May 2011. Stompe has "adopted" Portsmouth as his football team, due to the support he has received from fans. Stompé and his wife were found guilty of taxation fraud in 2017. They received work sentences of 150 and 190 hours of work for tax fraud respectively. The court in

Almelo Almelo () is a municipality and a city in the eastern Netherlands. The main population centres in the town are Aadorp, Almelo, Mariaparochie, and Bornerbroek. Almelo has about 72,000 inhabitants in the middle of the rolling countryside of Twente, ...

considered forgery of documents and the deliberate submission of incorrect declarations for turnover and income tax for the years 2009 through 2013 to have been proven. The couple also received a conditional prison sentence of three months. The fraud was estimated to be more than 100,000 euros.

World Championship results

BDO

*1996: 1st round (lost to

Steve Beaton Steve Beaton (born 5 April 1964) is an English professional darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He won the BDO World Darts Championship in 1996 and is a former World No. 1. Background Beaton was born in Co ...

0–3) *1998: 1st round (lost to

2–3) *1999: 2nd round (lost to Roland Scholten 2–3) *2000: Semi-finalist (lost to

2–5) *2001: 2nd round (lost to

0–3) *2002: 2nd round (lost to Bob Taylor 2–3) *2003: 1st round (lost to

Martin Adams Martin Adams (born 4 June 1956) is an English professional darts player who plays in World Darts Federation (WDF) events. Nicknamed "Wolfie", he is a three-time BDO World Champion and three-time World Masters champion. He represents Cambridgesh ...

1–3) *2004: 1st round (lost to

Robert Wagner Robert John Wagner Jr. (born February 10, 1930) is an American actor of stage, screen, and television. He is known for starring in the television shows '' It Takes a Thief'' (1968–1970), ''Switch'' (1975–1978), and ''Hart to Hart'' (1979– ...

2–3) *2005: 1st round (lost to André Brantjes 2–3) *2006: 1st round (lost to

Paul Hanvidge Paul Albert Hanvidge (born 15 June 1961) is a former Scottish professional darts player. His best achievement is reaching the quarter-finals of the Lakeside World Championship twice. Career Hanvidge was the 2005 German Open Champion and made ...

1–3) *2007: 2nd round (lost to

1–4) *2008: 2nd round (lost to Brian Woods 2–4)

PDC

*2009: Quarter-finalist (lost to Phil Taylor 0–5) *2010: Quarter-finalist (lost to Mark Webster 3–5) *2011: 1st round (lost to Peter Wright 1–3) *2012: 2nd round (lost to

1–4) *2013: 1st round (lost to Paul Nicholson 0–3)

Career finals

WDF major finals: 1 (1 title)

PDC team finals: 1 (1 title)

WDF team finals: 4 (1 title, 3 runner-up)

Career statistics

(W) Won; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Prel.) Preliminary round; (DNQ) Did not qualify; (DNP) Did not participate; (NH) Not held

Performance timeline

References

External links

Stompé career details
on dartsdatabase
Stompé
on modusdarts.tv {{DEFAULTSORT:Stompe, Co 1962 births Living people Dutch darts players Dutch sports announcers Professional Darts Corporation former tour card holders Sportspeople from Amsterdam British Darts Organisation players PDC ranking title winners PDC World Cup of Darts Dutch championship team