Rodney Harrington (born 30 December 1957) is an English former professional
darts player and former commentator. He used the nickname "The Prince of Style" for his matches, often wearing a suit and waistcoat for his games. Harrington enjoyed some major success during his professional career including the prestigious
Winmau World Masters in 1991 and two successive
World Matchplays in 1998 and 1999.
At the
PDC Awards Dinner held in January 2019, Harrington was inducted into the PDC Hall of Fame.
Darts career
BDO career
He started his career before the game split into two separate organisations during the early 1990s. He accumulated many Open tournament titles including the Belgian Open (1991, 1992), Denmark Open (1991, 1992), French Open (1991, 1993) and the Swedish Open (1991). Harrington's 1991
Winmau World Masters victory over
Phil Taylor remains one of Taylor's rare major final defeats – although Taylor was only a one-time World Champion at the time and had lost his world crown to
Dennis Priestley in January 1991.
Harrington made his World Championship debut in 1992, reaching the quarter-finals before losing to eventual runner-up
Mike Gregory. At the 1993 World Championship, Harrington was seeded fourth but lost 2–3 to
Wayne Weening
Wayne Dirk Weening (born 15 March 1965) is an Australian former professional darts player who competed in the 1980s and 90s.
Career
Weening made his debut in 1989 BDO World Darts Championship reaching the last 16 by beating Cliff Lazarenko be ...
in the first round. After those championships, the majority of the top players left the governing body, the
British Darts Organisation, to form the WDC (now
PDC) in an acrimonious
split in the game.
PDC career
After the WDC/PDC started their own World Championship in 1994, Harrington would be ever-present in the event for the first ten years. He reached the quarter-finals in the inaugural tournament, but his best ever achievement came in the 1995 World Championship – by reaching the final. He lost the final 2–6 to Taylor, who was winning the third of his world championship titles at the time.
He reached the World semi-finals on two further occasions, 1998 (where he was beaten by that year's eventual winner, Taylor) and 2001 (where he lost to that year's runner-up,
John Part) and the quarter-finals in 1997. However, after the 2002 World Championship (where he was seeded third), his form slumped dramatically to the point where he was outside the top 16 by 2003 – and a first round defeat by
Alan Warriner
Alan Warriner-Little (born Warriner; 24 March 1962) is an English former professional darts player. Nicknamed The Iceman, he is a former World Grand Prix champion and a former runner-up at the World Professional Darts Championship.
Darts care ...
would turn out to be his last appearance in the World Championship.
He did have some success at the other major PDC tournaments. In 1998, he beat
Ronnie Baxter in the final of the
World Matchplay, helped along the way by his now famous 125 checkout (Treble 15, Double 20, Double 20); he then successfully defended the title in 1999 with a victory over
Peter Manley. He and Phil Taylor remained the only players to retain a major PDC title until
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 Cham ...
retained his UK Open title in 2007. Harrington also reached the final of the first
World Grand Prix event in 1998 losing to Taylor. Along with
Richie Burnett he also reached the final of the PDC World Pairs tournament in 1997, losing in the final to the pairing of van Barneveld and
Roland Scholten.
Final years
After three knee operations in the first half of 2001, Harrington's form dropped dramatically, and although he never officially announced a retirement from the game. He still attempted to qualify for the major UK tournaments until the 2007 World Championship – where he lost in the first qualifying round. He is unranked in the official Order of Merit. Harrington retired from professional darts in 2007, and has never thrown another dart in any competition since.
Harrington became a director of the PDC and now also regularly acts in the capacity of a commentator and analyst on
Sky Sports
Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...
' live darts coverage. At one time, he was also the manager of former PDC world number one
Colin Lloyd.
Personal life
Harrington is married to Dawn and has three children: Victoria, Curtis, and
Ryan
Ryan may refer to:
People and fictional characters
*Ryan (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name)
* Ryan (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name)
Places Australia
* Division of Ryan, an elect ...
. His son Ryan (born 1990) is a darts player on the PDC circuit.
World Championship results
BDO
* 1992: Quarter-finals (lost to
Mike Gregory 3–4)
* 1993: 1st round (lost to
Wayne Weening
Wayne Dirk Weening (born 15 March 1965) is an Australian former professional darts player who competed in the 1980s and 90s.
Career
Weening made his debut in 1989 BDO World Darts Championship reaching the last 16 by beating Cliff Lazarenko be ...
2–3)
PDC
* 1994: Quarter-finals (lost to
Peter Evison 1–4)
* 1995: Runner-up (lost to
Phil Taylor 2–6)
* 1996: Group stage (beat
Nigel Justice 3–0, lost to
Larry Butler 2–3)
* 1997: Quarter-finals (lost to
Dennis Priestley 2–5)
* 1998: Semi-finals (lost to
Phil Taylor 2–5), (beat
Keith Deller for third place 4–1)
* 1999: 2nd round (lost to
Shayne Burgess 1–3)
* 2000: 1st round (lost to
John Lowe 2–3)
* 2001: Semi-finals (lost to
John Part 5-6)
* 2002: 2nd round (lost to
Dennis Priestley 3–6)
* 2003: 2nd round (lost to
Alan Warriner-Little 2–4)
Career finals
BDO major finals: 1 (1 title)
PDC major finals: 4 (2 titles, 2 runners-up)
Performance timeline
References
External links
*
Player profile on Dartsmad
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harrington, Rod
English darts players
Living people
1957 births
Darts commentators
Professional Darts Corporation founding players
British Darts Organisation players
People from Boreham
World Matchplay (darts) champions
Professional Darts Corporation Hall of Fame