Robert Thornton (darts Player)

Robert "Bob" Thornton (born 17 July 1967) is a Scottish professional darts player, who is the current World Seniors champion.

Thornton is a three-time major winner between the BDO and PDC, having won the World Masters in 2007, UK Open in 2012, and World Grand Prix in 2015. He is also a former finalist at the Players Championship Finals in 2009 and Grand Slam of Darts in 2013. In addition, Thornton has reached three World Championship quarter-finals across both organisations and was a participant in the Premier League in 2013, 2014 and 2016.

BDO career

Thornton returned to playing darts in 2002, having given up the game for two decades to raise his children. He qualified for the BDO World Championship for the first time in 2005. He beat Martin Atkins and Tony West before losing to Darryl Fitton in the quarter-finals. He then failed to qualify for the 2006 and 2007 events.

Thornton's first professional title came in the Central Scotland Open in April 2007, beating Mike Veitch in the final. He also won the Scottish Masters by defeating Ross Montgomery. He failed to make it through the qualifying event for the 2008 World Championship, but did make it to the televised stages of the 2007 Winmau World Masters in the same weekend. Thornton then beat Co Stompé, BDO world champion Martin Adams, and Atkins to reach the final. He managed to avenge his defeat by Fitton at the 2005 Lakeside World Championship to claim his first major title by 7 sets to 5 and win the £25,000 first prize and also a place in the 2008 World Championship.

His appearance at the World Championship was only his second visit to Lakeside and he matched his previous appearance by reaching the quarter-finals. Having beaten John Walton and Tony O'Shea, he lost to defending champion Adams. Thornton's good form continued into 2008 when he won the Dutch Open in February and reached the last eight of the Scottish Open a week later to achieve a career high of third in the WDF world rankings and was top of the BDO rankings.

PDC career

Thornton qualified for the 2008 UK Open via the Pub qualifiers and then went on to switch to the PDC after withdrawing from the Scottish team for the Europe Cup, stating that his first goal was to get into the top 16 of the PDC Order of Merit which would guarantee his place in all the major tournaments. At the UK Open he lost 9–6 to Alan Tabern in the last 32. Thornton qualified for the Las Vegas Desert Classic losing again in the last 32 this time 6–5 against Adrian Lewis, but went one better at the World Grand Prix when he beat Peter Manley 2–1 in sets in the first round before being defeated 3–2 by Andy Hamilton in the last 16. His good start to his career in the PDC continued at the European Championship where he saw off John Part, Mensur Suljović and Ronnie Baxter to advance to the semi-finals for the first time and a meeting with Phil Taylor. Thornton averaged 102.12 in the match but Taylor averaged 113.33 as he won 11–7. Thornton's World Masters title from last year saw him qualify for the Grand Slam of Darts and he advanced from Group E with wins over Gary Mawson and Kirk Shepherd, before being edged out 10–8 by Terry Jenkins in the last 16. Away from the television cameras on the PDC Pro Tour he won the Australian Open Players Championship with a 3–1 success against Paul Nicholson. He was a losing semi-finalist three times and a quarter-finalist four times in the other events to finish as the highest non-qualified player on the Pro Tour Order of Merit for the 2009 PDC World Championship.

At the World Championship, he won 3–1 against Wayne Jones, but went out in the second round with a 4–3 defeat to world number eight Wayne Mardle. However, this performance guaranteed Thornton a spot in the top 32 of the PDC Order of Merit – just eight months after his defection from the BDO. He reached his first PDC final at the Players Championship Finals. Seeded 14 in the tournament based on the previous year's floor events, Thornton edged Mark Dudbridge in the first round on a final-leg decider. This gave him a second round tie with world number 10 and third seed Alan Tabern, in which Thornton dominated 6–2 after Tabern had missed a dart for a 3–1 lead. He then played a resurgent Dennis Priestley – who had earlier been on the brink of defeat, losing 5–0 to John Part before rattling off six consecutive legs to win the match – in the quarter-finals. Those heroics seemed to fatigue Priestley as he slumped to a 9–5 defeat to Thornton, which earned him a semi-final place against world number two James Wade. In a very tight semi-final, Thornton won four of the last five legs to earn a 13–10 victory and a spot in the final against Phil Taylor, who had only dropped eight legs in the tournament to that point. With the scores level at 5–5 early on, Taylor came out on top 16–9, however Thornton earned £25,000 for making the final, propelling him up the rankings. Thornton became only the third player to win both events of a PDC Pro Tour weekend in Irvine, North Ayrshire

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