Mark "Flash" Dudbridge (born 11 January 1973) is an English professional
darts
Darts or dart-throwing is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small sharp-pointed missiles known as darts at a round target known as a dartboard.
Points can be scored by hitting specific marked areas of the bo ...
player. He appeared in the
2005 Premier League Darts
The 2005 888.com Premier League was the first season of a Premier League Darts tournament organised by the Professional Darts Corporation.
Phil Taylor, Colin Lloyd, Peter Manley, John Part, Roland Scholten, Wayne Mardle and wildcard entrant ...
after reaching the final of the
2005 PDC World Darts Championship
The 2005 Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship was the 12th edition of the PDC World Darts Championship, and was held at the Circus Tavern, Purfleet taking place between 26 December 2004 and 3 January 2005.
Phil Taylor went on to clinch his 1 ...
. He also is a former
World Master and has reached the final of the
World Matchplay.
Career
Dudbridge started playing in his very early teens, citing
Dennis Priestley as one of his heroes. Dudbridge made a name for himself in the
British Darts Organisation by winning the
Winmau World Masters in 2002, defeating
Tony West in the final – in his first televised tournament. He never competed in the BDO version of the World Championship and switched instead to compete in 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 Wor ...
.
In 2003, he won a regional final of the
UK Open and also the Ireland Open Classic and knocked out
John Part, who was defending champion at the time, in his first appearance at the World Championship in 2004. His success continued in Blackpool at the World Matchplay in 2004 going on to reach the final before losing to
Phil Taylor. His
2005 PDC World Championship campaign started off by beating two former World Champions back to back –
Richie Burnett
Richard Mark "Richie" Burnett (born 7 February 1967), nicknamed Prince of Wales, is a Welsh professional darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He is a former World No. 1 who won the 1995 Embassy World Darts C ...
and then
John Part. He then beat
Denis Ovens and
Wayne Mardle before meeting Taylor again in the final – possibly Dudbridge's best achievement to date. This achievement saw him qualify for the inaugural
Premier League
The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...
and he also took the decision to become a full-time professional player.
Since 2005, Dudbridge's ranking has slipped and he has not made the major impact on the game that his earlier results might have suggested. He started 2007 ranked 20 in the
world rankings and his best result of that year was reaching the quarter finals of the new
US Open in May. Later in that season, in the
World Grand Prix, he did however achieve what has become one of the more notable and memorable moments in the tournament's history; in his second round clash with
Andy Jenkins, with the match going into a deciding leg, he missed his first 9 darts at the double-in, and his opponent took a 285 point lead - Dudbridge however managed to produce some heavy scoring in his next visits and won the leg and match.
Dudbridge qualified for the
2013 UK Open, his first televised appearance since the 2012 PDC World Championship. He also qualified for the 2014 World Championship. In 2017, he won two Challenge Tour events. He earned a Pro Tour Card for 2018 by finishing second in the Challenge Tour Order of Merit.
Outside darts
Dudbridge is one of the few players chosen to appear in the ''
PDC World Championship Darts'' computer game.
Dudbridge owns Cafe501
and Solar Darts. He currently lives in
Bradley Stoke and is married with three children. He is a supporter of
Bristol City
Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...
and several players including
Scott Murray and
Louis Carey have been spotted watching his matches live.
World Championship results
PDC
*2004: Quarter-finals (lost to
Kevin Painter 1-5)
*2005: Runner-up (lost to
Phil Taylor 4-7)
*2006: 3rd round (lost to Kevin Painter 1-4)
*2007: 2nd round (lost to
Andy Hamilton 3-4)
*2008: 3rd round (lost to
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 th ...
2-4)
*2009: 3rd round (lost to
Barrie Bates 0-4)
*2010: 3rd round (lost to
Co Stompé 2-4)
*2011: 2nd round (lost to
Adrian Lewis 1-4)
*2012: 1st round (lost to
Dave Chisnall 0-3)
*2014: 1st round (lost to
Gary Anderson 0-3)
Career finals
BDO major finals: 1 (1 title)
PDC premier event finals: 2 (2 runners-up)
Performance timeline
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dudbridge, Mark
1973 births
Living people
English darts players
Professional Darts Corporation former tour card holders
British Darts Organisation players
PDC ranking title winners
21st-century English people