Mike Gregory (darts Player)

Michael Seward "Mike" Gregory (16 December 1956 – 19 April 2022) was an English professional darts player, who reached the final of the Winmau World Masters twice and also reached the final of the Embassy World Darts Championship in 1992 – losing to Phil Taylor in a match regarded amongst the greatest matches ever played.

Darts career

Gregory was one of the top ranked players from the mid-1980s through to the early 1990s, having been seeded in the top four at the World Championships on seven occasions – although he never won the World title.

His major breakthrough was beating John Lowe in the semi-finals of the 1983 British Open in which he finished runner-up to Eric Bristow. He lost again to Bristow in the final of that year's World Masters tournament. He made his World Championship debut in 1984 and reached the quarter-final, losing heavily 0–5 to Jocky Wilson.

Gregory lost at the quarter-final stage of the World Championship in 1987, 1989 and 1993. He made his first semi-final in 1990, losing to Eric Bristow and his only final appearance came in 1992 – when he lost an epic match 5–6 in sets to Taylor. Having missed six darts for the title – two each for double 20, double 8 and double 10, which he has since jokingly referred to as the Bermuda Triangle – the match went all the way to a sudden death leg, which comes when the players reach 5–5 in both sets and legs. It was the first time this had happened in the World Championship's 14-year history and the match is often mentioned in discussions about the greatest darts match; Taylor himself listed this as his greatest ever match. Gregory won the bull-off to throw first in the decider, but had a bounce-out on his first turn and Taylor comfortably sealed the win. Gregory would become the only man to have lost a World Championship final having had darts at double to win, and remained so until Mark McGeeney did so in 2018.

Whilst he was never a World Champion, he won many televised titles of the era, including the 1984 Unipart British Professional (beating both Jocky Wilson and John Lowe), the 1986 MFI World Matchplay, as well as becoming one of only seven players to win the News of the World Darts Championship twice (in 1987 and 1988), joining Tom Barrett (1963–64 and 1964–65) and Eric Bristow (1983 and 1984) as the only other players to win it in consecutive years.

Major controversy

Mike Gregory was a controversial figure in a dispute which threatened darts during 1992–93. Darts had enjoyed a boom-and-bust period during the 1980s and 1990s. At first, sponsors and television companies could not get enough of the game with many major tournaments appearing on the screens. Despite the number of tournaments, the game had a poor image in the eyes of many – players were allowed to smoke and drink alcohol on stage during matches. The decision of ITV to scrap their World of Sport programme after September 1985 was the first serious blow, as the programme had covered darts on a regular basis. In the summer of 1988, both the BBC and ITV decided in quick succession to axe all their coverage of darts from the start of 1989, with the exception of the World Championship on the BBC. This massive slump in television coverage, combined with the poor image of darts to sponsors, made it very difficult for professional dart players to make a living from the sport.

The players formed the World Darts Council (WDC – now known as the Professional Darts Corporation) in January 1992 with the intention to promote the game more on television and enhance their earnings which had severely diminished in the previous few years.

The top 16 players including all the former World Champions stuck together in the WDC and Gregory won their first ever tournament, the 1992 Lada UK Masters which was televised regionally on Anglia Television, with Gregory defeating Dennis Priestley in the final. The players planned to wear WDC logos on their sleeves during the 1993 World Championship as a show of solidarity – but the governing body, the British Darts Organisation (BDO) told the players to remove them. Later in the tournament, the WDC players issued a statement, saying that they would only participate in the 1994 World Championship, if it came under the auspices of the WDC, and that they only recognised the WDC as having the authority to sanction their participation in darts tournaments worldwide.

Gregory won the second WDC Lada UK Masters in November 1993, defeating Bob Anderson in the final, and the WDC had just signed a contract with Sky Sports to broadcast its own World Championship and World Matchplay, starting in 1994. In late November 1993, Gregory had a change of heart and decided to return to the BDO. Chris Johns was the other player who had gone back to the BDO (before Gregory), but the other 14 stayed united. Gregory's decision to jump back to the BDO caused controversy, as the WDC players felt as if he had let them down, mainly as he had not told them of his decision in advance.

After the split

The last BDO tournament in which the "rebel" players competed was the Finland Open in April 1993. Gregory's return to the BDO was in time for the 1994 British Open, which was staged on New Year's Day, and he reached the semi-finals. He was not able to compete at the Embassy World Darts Championship in 1994, as the tournament draw had been made before he decided to return to the BDO. Later in 1994, he won the Norway Open and Belgian Open.

In 1995, he returned to the Lakeside for the first time since the split as the number five seed. He reached the quarter-finals, losing 3–4 to Martin Adams.

His other WDF titles came in 1995, winning the Swiss Open and the Belgian Open. Gregory then won his last televised title in September 1995, when he won the Unipart European Masters tournament, which was held at Lakeside and broadcast on the BBC. In the semi-final, Gregory defeated the reigning BDO World Champion, Richie Burnett, and beat Peter Manley in the final.

After Gregory's Unipart European Masters triumph, his form quickly faded. He suffered first round defeats in each of his next three appearances in the BDO World Championship at Lakeside – in 1996, 1997 and 1999. Since 1999, Gregory has failed to qualify for the competition. Other than a quarter-final appearance at the 2001 Welsh Open and a defeat to Davy Richardson in the final of the 2003 Scottish Open, he has not featured in the latter stages of Open events since 1999. His last appearance at a major WDF event being the 2005 Scottish Open, when he reached the last 16.

Gregory played county darts for Somerset and also played for Radstock in the Somerset Super League, where he appeared with the PDC player Steve Grubb.

Death

Mike Gregory died on 19 April 2022, at the age of 65. He had been battling dementia in the last few years.

World Championship results

BDO

* 1984: Quarter Finals (lost to Jocky Wilson 0–5) (sets)
* 1985: 1st Round (lost to Bobby George 1–2)
* 1986: 1st Round (lost to Keith Deller 0–3)
* 1987: Quarter Finals (lost to Jocky Wilson 3–4)
* 1988: 1st Round (lost to Chris Johns 0–3)
* 1989: Quarter Finals (lost to Jocky Wilson 3–4)
* 1990: Semi Finals (lost to Eric Bristow 2–5)
* 1991: 2nd Round (lost to Eric Bristow 0–3)
* 1992: Runner Up (lost to Phil Taylor 5–6)
* 1993: Quarter Finals (lost to Bobby George 2–4)
* 1995: Quarter Finals (lost to Martin Adams 3–4)
* 1996: 1st Round (lost to Les Wallace 0–3)
* 1997: 1st Round (lost to Roland Scholten 2–3)
* 1999: 1st Round (lost to Martin Adams 1–3)

Career finals

Independent major finals: 2 (2 titles)

Performance timeline

References

External links

Mike Gregory profile
dartsdatabase
Mike Gregory interview on darts split (2008)
superstars of darts

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gregory, Mike
1956 births
2022 deaths
English darts players
Sportspeople from Bath, Somerset
British Darts Organisation players
Professional Darts Corporation founding players