Stephen Brown (born 25 January 1981 in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

) is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

professional darts player who competes 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 World ...

events.

Career

He has competed on the PDC Pro Tour since 2006, regularly reaching the last 64 of events. His best performances came in the 2007 Windy City Open in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and the 2007 UK Open Irish Regional where he reached the quarter-finals. He also made it to the last 16 of the 2007 Peachtree Open and 2007

Hayling Island Hayling Island is an island off the south coast of England, in the borough of Havant in the county of Hampshire, east of Portsmouth. History An Iron Age shrine in the north of Hayling Island was later developed into a Roman temple in the 1st c ...

PDPA Players Championship. His consistency on the Pro Tour during 2007 saw him qualify for the 2008 PDC World Darts Championship for the first time. He was the fifth highest ranked player on the Pro Tour of those who had not sealed an automatic place in the tournament. Having started the year at 613 in the world rankings—he had climbed to 76th by November. He lost to Chris Mason in the first round. Brown next qualified for the World Championship in

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

, losing 1-3 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 the ...

in the first round. 2010 was a breakthrough year for Brown, as he reached the second round of both the World Matchplay and the World Grand Prix. He also reached the second round of the

2011 PDC World Darts Championship The 2011 Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship was the 18th World Championship organised by the Professional Darts Corporation since it separated from the British Darts Organisation. The event took place at the Alexandra Palace, London from 16 D ...

, defeating

Jelle Klaasen Jelle Klaasen (born 17 October 1984), nicknamed The Cobra, is a Dutch professional darts player who plays in the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) and World Darts Federation (WDF) events. In 2006, he became the youngest darts player to win the ...

to secure a second-round match with

Terry Jenkins Terry Jenkins (born 26 September 1963) is an English former professional darts player who was nicknamed The Bull, having previously used the name "Tucker" for his matches. He reached number three in the world rankings and was a runner-up in nin ...

, which he lost 4-1. Brown won his first PDC Pro Tour event in February 2011, defeating Ian White 6-3 in the final of UK Open Qualifier 1. In April, he climbed into the top 32 of the

PDC Order of Merit The PDC Order of Merit is a world ranking system used by one of the darts organisations, the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). Following the 2007 PDC World Darts Championship it superseded a world ranking system based on points being awarded fo ...

for the first time. At the 2012 World Championship Brown lost in the first round to

South Africa's South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

preliminary qualifier

Devon Petersen Devon Petersen (born 4 June 1986) is a South African professional darts player and a pundit for Sky Sports. He has qualified for the PDC World Championship on seven occasions with his best result coming in 2014, 2019 and 2021 when he reached th ...

3–2 in sets, having led 2–1 and had a dart at the bullseye to win the match. In the rest of 2012, Brown performed well in the five new European Tour events by qualifying for four of them. He lost in the last 64 once, the last 32 twice and saved his best run for the final event, the Dutch Darts Masters where he defeated

Dick van Dijk Dirk Wouter Johannes "Dick" van Dijk (15 February 1946 – 8 July 1997) was a Dutch professional footballer who played for FC Twente and Ajax Amsterdam. He was a member of Ajax's European Cup victory in 1971. He earned seven caps for the N ...

6–5 and

Wes Newton Wesley Newton (born 27 August 1977) is an English professional darts player. Darts career Newton's first PDC major was the 2003 UK Open where he lost 8–6 to Mark Thomson in the last 32. He was beaten in the semi-finals of the Eastbourne Op ...

6–2, before losing to Mark Walsh 6–3 in the last 16. It was largely thanks to these results that he reached the 2013 World Championship by finishing 41st on the ProTour Order of Merit, taking the 11th of 16 spots that were awarded to the highest non-qualified players. Brown lost to

0–3 in the first round. After the tournament, Brown was ranked world number 36. He lost 5–4 to

Adrian Gray Adrian Gray (born 28 February 1981) is an English darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. Career Gray made his televised debut at the 2003 UK Open. He only began playing darts at the age of 18, and within thr ...

in the first round of the 2013 UK Open. At the fifth Players Championship of the year, Brown threw a

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 ...

during a 6–2 second round win over

Connie Finnan Connie Finnan (born 20 May 1962) is a former Irish professional darts player. Career BDO In September 2009, Finnan qualified for the televised stages of the World Masters. He defeated Darryl Fitton 3–1 in the last 16 before losing 3–0 to ...

, but lost 6–0 to Joe Cullen in the next round. At the Gibraltar Darts Trophy he hit six doubles from eight attempts to defeat

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 ...

6–4 and then beat Paul Nicholson 6–3, before being whitewashed 6–0 by youngster

Jamie Lewis Jamie Lewis (born 8 November 1991) is a Welsh professional darts player who currently plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) and World Darts Federation (WDF) events. His biggest achievement to date was reaching the semi-finals of the 2018 ...

in the third round. He reached the same stage of the

German Darts Championship The German Darts Championship is a Professional Darts Corporation event that takes place in Germany as part of the PDC European Tour. Since 2013, it has been held at Halle 39 in Hildesheim, after previously being held in Berlin Berlin ( , ) ...

with impressive 6–2 wins over both Gary Anderson and Ian White, but lost by a reverse of this scoreline to

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 Cha ...

. These two results made up almost half of Brown's prize money in 2013 and he earned the final spot for the 2014 World Championship through the ProTour Order of Merit. Brown played 27th seed Andy Smith in the opening round and missed one dart to take a 2–0 set lead. In the third set Brown wired a dart at double 12 to fall agonisingly close to hitting the third

of the event. He did get the double in his next visit to take the leg in 10 darts but this was the last leg he could win in the match as he was beaten 3–1. He dropped 10 places over the course of the year to begin 2014 ranked world number 46. Brown lost 5–4 to Ewan Hyslop in the first round of the

2014 UK Open The 2014 Coral UK Open was a darts tournament staged by the Professional Darts Corporation. It was the twelfth year of the tournament where, following numerous regional qualifying heats throughout Britain, players competed in a single elimination t ...

and had to wait until the penultimate Players Championship of the year to reach the last 16 for the only time this season. He knocked out

Dave Ladley Dave Ladley (born 29 September 1975) is an English darts player that competes in Professional Darts Corporation events. Career Ladley joined the PDC in 2002, and qualified for the 2004 UK Open, where he lost to Barrie Bates in the second rou ...

and

, before

Adrian Lewis Adrian Lewis (born 21 January 1985) is an English professional darts player currently playing in the PDC. He is a two-time PDC World Darts Champion, winning in 2011 and 2012. He is nicknamed Jackpot, as he won a jackpot gambling in Las Vegas ...

defeated him 6–3. In 2015 he missed out on qualifying for 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 ...

for the first time since 2006. He won the Southern Counties Open with a 6–5 victory over

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 ...

. Brown had a poor year on the Pro Tour as he only reached the last 32 on two occasions. Brown had to enter Q School in 2016 as he had dropped out of the top 64 on the Order of Merit. He reached the last 16 on the second day but overall did not do enough to secure a tour card, giving him a limited selection of events for the year ahead. He didn't qualify for the

, but at the sixth Players Championship he beat Joe Cullen, James Richardson,

Antonio Alcinas Antonio Alcinas Estelrich (born 7 April 1979) is a Spanish darts player playing in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. Career Alcinas started competing in PDC Europe events in 2010. After reaching the quarter-finals of a Players Champ ...

James Wilson James Wilson may refer to: Politicians and government officials Canada *James Wilson (Upper Canada politician) (1770–1847), English-born farmer and political figure in Upper Canada * James Crocket Wilson (1841–1899), Canadian MP from Quebe ...

and

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 ...

to reach the semi-finals of an event for the first time in nearly five years. He was defeated 6–3 by Josh Payne. Brown also got to the last 32 and last 16 in two other events to qualify for 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 ...

, where he will play

Mensur Suljović Mensur Suljović (Serbian Cyrillic: Менсур Суљовић; born 5 March 1972) is an Austrian professional darts player. He plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, having previously played in the British Darts Organisation (BD ...

. On 19 January 2020, Brown regained his PDC Tour Card by finishing tenth on the UK Q School Order of Merit. He will play on the ProTour in 2020 and 2021.

Outside of darts

Brown began taking up darts around 1995, and prior to becoming a full-time professional, he made his living as a

plasterer A plasterer is a tradesman or tradesperson who works with plaster, such as forming a layer of plaster on an interior wall or plaster decorative moldings on ceilings or walls. The process of creating plasterwork, called plastering, has been u ...

. He is a fan 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 is married with four children. His son, John Brown, joined him on the PDC Pro Tour after winning a Tour Card at the 2021 Q-School. The darts that Steve Brown is now using are 22 gram custom-made Laserdarts. Horizon Darts, Inc (USA), makers of Laserdarts, is one of Steve's sponsors. In 2010 Brown also founded the Steve Brown Darts Academy for kids between the ages of 8 and 16 with multiple venues across the UK. This has now become the Junior Darts Corporation and it is officially partnered with the PDC.

World Championship results

PDC

* 2008: First round (lost to Chris Mason 1–3) * 2010: First round (lost to

1–3) * 2011: Second round (lost to

1–4) * 2012: First round (lost to

2–3) * 2013: First round (lost to

0–3) * 2014: First round (lost to Andy Smith 1–3)

Performance timeline

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Steve 1981 births English darts players Living people Professional Darts Corporation former tour card holders Sportspeople from Bristol