Colin Osborne (born 19 June 1975) is an English 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 who plays in

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 ...

(PDC) events. In 2009, he won the

Championship League Championship League is a professional snooker tournament, devised by Matchroom Sport. A ranking event version of the tournament began from September 2020, played similarly to its invitational, non-ranking counterpart but with some minor changes ...

and reached the final 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 ...

Darts career

Osborne has won two

PDC Pro Tour The PDC Pro Tour is a series of non-televised darts tournaments organised by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). They comprise Professional Dart Players Association (PDPA) Players Championships and European Tour events. Only four players ...

events and he also managed to hit two perfect

nine-dart finish A nine-dart finish, also known as a nine-darter, is a perfect leg or single game in the sport of darts. The object of the game is to score a set number of points, most commonly 501; in order to win, a player must reach the target total exactly an ...

es in 2005. The first one of these came in the Players Championship in the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isle of ...

and a second one followed at the non-televised qualifying rounds for the 2005 World Matchplay. On his World Championship debut in 2007, Osborne reached the quarter-finals where he was beaten 5–4 by

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 ...

. This great performance was followed by an even better one at the 2007 UK Open, where he beat

Michael van Gerwen Michael van Gerwen (; born 25 April 1989) is a Dutch professional darts player. He is currently ranked number 3 in the world, having been number 1 from 2014 to 2021. He is also a three-time PDC World Champion, having won the title in 2014, 2 ...

and Mervyn King as he reached the semi-final only to be beaten 11–10 in a thriller against

Vincent van der Voort Vincent van der Voort (born 18 December 1975) is a Dutch professional darts player on the PDC circuit. As of the 2012 PDC World Darts Championship, his nickname is the "Dutch Destroyer", although he used to go by "Grease Lightning". He is bes ...

. He followed this success with victory against

James Wade James Martin Wade (born 6 April 1983) is an English professional darts player, currently playing in the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). He became the youngest player to win a major PDC title, when he won the 2007 World Matchplay at the ...

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

, only to lose to

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 ...

in the second round. Osborne suffered a surprising first round exit in the 2008 World Championship, losing 3–1 to Dutchman

Erwin Extercatte Erwin Extercatte (born 16 April 1981 in Delden, Overijssel) is a Dutch former darts player who competed for the Professional Darts Corporation. Career Extercatte showed great promise in his first two years in the PDC, winning the Open Oust Ned ...

. In the 2008 World Matchplay, he beat King in the first round, but then lost in the next round to Phil Taylor. Osborne was 10–0 down before finally winning a leg, eventually losing 13–5 with Taylor averaging 109. In the 2009 PDC World Championship, Osborne beat South Africa's

Charles Losper Charles Losper (born 18 March 1969) is a South African professional darts player who currently played in the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. Darts career Having started playing darts in 1991, Losper's first major tournament appea ...

3–0 in the first round, before losing 4–1 to van der Voort in the second round. 2009 was a breakthrough year for Osborne, as he reached his first major final in the

2009 UK Open The 2009 Blue Square UK Open was the seventh year of the PDC darts tournament where, following numerous regional qualifying heats throughout Britain, players competed in a single elimination tournament to be crowned champion. The tournament was ...

. Having beaten

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 ...

Jamie Caven Jamie Robert Caven (born 10 March 1976) is an English former professional darts player who plays in British Darts Organisation (BDO) events. He has won seven events on the PDC Pro Tour, including two in the same weekend in May 2013. Caven was ...

and

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

in the earlier rounds, he lost 11–6 to Taylor in the final. He also won the 2009 Championship League Darts, defeating Taylor 6–4 in the final, but a disappointing year in the other majors was compounded with a first-round loss to

Simon Whitlock Simon Whitlock (born 3 March 1969) is an Australian professional darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) tournaments, having also played in the British Darts Organisation (BDO) between 2004 and 2009. He uses the nickname T ...

in the 2010 World Championship, a match that was dubbed "The Battle of the Wizards" due to both players being nicknamed 'The Wizard'. In 2010, Osborne reached the semi-finals of the

Players Championship Finals The Players Championship Finals is a darts tournament organised by the Professional Darts Corporation. The tournament originally featured the top 32 players from the Players Championship Order of Merit, a separate ranking system that only takes int ...

before losing to King. At the Grand Slam of Darts, Osborne lost his opening group match to Robert Thornton before beating Whitlock and

Dave Chisnall Dave Chisnall (born 12 September 1980) is an English professional darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He began his career in the British Darts Organisation (BDO) and was the runner-up in their World Champions ...

to qualify for the knockout stages. He lost 10–3 to Gary Anderson in the last 16. He then reached the third round of the 2011 World Championship, and was 3–2 up against van Barneveld before losing 4–3.

Nickname

Between 2005 and 2010, Osborne was nicknamed The Wizard, a reference to '' The Wizard of Oz''. He has long been known on the circuit, most notably by commentator

Sid Waddell Sid Waddell (10 August 1940 – 11 August 2012) was an English sports commentator and television personality. He was nicknamed the 'Voice of Darts' due to his fame as a darts commentator, and worked for Granada, Yorkshire, BBC and Sky Sports. D ...

as Ozzy, a reference to both ''The Wizard of Oz'' and to rock singer

Ozzy Osbourne John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (born 3 December 1948) is an English singer, songwriter, and television personality. He rose to prominence during the 1970s as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath, during which period he adop ...

. Due to the latter, he used the song "

Paranoid Paranoia is an instinct or thought process that is believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of delusion and irrationality. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy c ...

" by Ozzy's band

Black Sabbath Black Sabbath were an English rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward (musician), Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. They are often cited as pioneers of heavy met ...

as his walk-on. In 2011, he officially changed his nickname to 'Ozzy', following the increasing prominence of

, who is also nicknamed 'The Wizard'.

Outside darts

Osborne is a former representative of the English

table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

team. He is also a former

yo-yo A yo-yo (also spelled yoyo) is a toy consisting of an axle connected to two disks, and a string looped around the axle, similar to a spool. It is an ancient toy with proof of existence since 500 BCE. The yo-yo was also called a bandalore in ...

champion and enjoys

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

and

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sports, cue sport played on a Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets, one at each corner and o ...

. Osborne was born in Middlesbrough, but now lives in Derby with his wife Sarah. The couple have two sons, Colin Jr. (born 2003) and Alfie (born 2006). For about 18 months, Colin and Sarah were the landlords of the Greyhound pub, Village Street.

2020

Since March he has not competed in any darts event.

World Championship performances

PDC

* 2007: Quarter-Finals (lost to

4–5) * 2008: 1st Round (lost to

1–3) * 2009: 2nd Round (lost to

1–4) * 2010: 1st Round (lost to

1–3) * 2011: 3rd Round (lost to

3–4) * 2012: 1st Round (lost to

1–3) * 2013: 2nd Round (lost to

0–4) * 2014: 1st Round (lost to

Brendan Dolan Brendan Gabriel Dolan (born 2 August 1973) is a Northern Irish professional darts player from County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, who plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He is best known for becoming the first player to hit a ...

0–3)

PDC major finals: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

Performance timeline

References

External links

Colin Osborne profile
on winmau.com (archived)
Colins Management Team

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Osborne, Colin Living people 1975 births English darts players Professional Darts Corporation former tour card holders Sportspeople from Middlesbrough Sportspeople from Derby PDC premier title winners PDC ranking title winners