Martin Atkins (born 24 December 1965) is an English professional

darts Darts is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small projectile point, sharp-pointed projectile, projectiles known as dart (missile), darts at a round shooting target, target known as a #Dartboard, dartboard. Point ...

player. His nickname is The Assassin.

Career

Atkins has been a

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

county player since 1996 and has represented the England national side in many occasions including 3 times in the Six Nations, winning all three, and once in the World Cup in 2011, contributing to England's best performance since 1995. He reached the last 16 of the BDO

World Professional Darts Championship The World Professional Darts Championship is one of the most important tournaments in the darts calendar. Originally held as an annual event between 1978 and 1993, players then broke off into two separate organisations after a controversial split ...

in both 2006 and 2007. In 2006 he led

Martin Adams Martin Adams (born 4 June 1956) is an English professional darts player who plays in World Darts Federation (WDF) events. Nicknamed "Wolfie", he is a three-time BDO World Champion and three-time World Masters champion. He represents Cambridgesh ...

3–0 and had a match dart in the fifth leg of the fifth set, but ultimately lost 4–3. The following year, he was beaten by eventual finalist Phill Nixon

He was seeded number 10 for the

2008 BDO World Darts Championship The 2008 Lakeside World Professional Darts Championship was the 31st World Championship staged by the British Darts Organisation and was held between 5–13 January 2008 at the Lakeside Country Club, Frimley Green, Surrey. Martin Adams atte ...

. However, he lost in the first round to

Andy Boulton Andrew Boulton (born 25 February 1973) is a Scottish professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. Nicknamed "X-Factor", he has won four titles on the PDC Challenge Tour. Career BDO, UK Open appearances ...

. The following year, unseeded, Atkins won his first round match 3–2 against

Joey ten Berge Joey ten Berge (born 18 October 1985) is a Dutch former darts player. Career BDO Ten Berge won the 2001 WDF Europe Youth Cup beating Sweden's Markus Korhonen in the final. Six years later, he captured his first professional title by capturing ...

before losing to Gary Robson 4–1. Seeded number 10 for the

2010 BDO World Darts Championship The 2010 Lakeside World Professional Darts Championship was the 33rd World Championship organised by the British Darts Organisation, and the 25th staging at the Lakeside Country Club at Frimley Green. Ted Hankey was the defending men's champio ...

, Atkins suffered another first round exit after he was defeated by Lakeside debutant Paul Carter 3–1. In 2011, Atkins was drawn against third seed and eventual runner-up

Dean Winstanley Dean Winstanley (born 10 February 1981) is an English professional darts player. He first took up darts as a two-year-old, stopped playing at the age of 12, and then started playing again when he was 22. He turned professional in 2008 and won ...

in the first round, and lost 3–2 having missed two match darts in the fourth set. Atkins finally progressed past the second-round stage of the World Championship when, in

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

, he defeated 7th seed John Walton and 10th seed

Willy van de Wiel Willy van de Wiel (born 15 April 1982) is a Dutch former professional darts player. BDO career Van de Wiel won the 2008 Norway Open, beating Dave Chisnall, Stephen Bunting and John Henderson, before beating Paul Hanvidge in the final. He als ...

en route to a quarter-final match against

Ted Hankey Edward Hankey (born 20 February 1968) is an English former professional darts player and convicted sex offender. Nicknamed "The Count", he won the BDO World Darts Championship in 2000 and 2009 and was runner-up in 2001. He moved to the Professi ...

where he lost 5–1. In 2012, Atkins won the biggest title of his career so far by winning the

BDO British Open The British Open is one of the longest-running darts events, having started just a few months after the first ever Winmau World Masters. The tournament used to be televised by the BBC from its inception, but it ceased to cover the event after 198 ...

, beating

Robbie Green Robbie Green (born 19 July 1974) is a former English professional darts player. His nickname was Kong. PDC career Green made his televised debut at the 2004 UK Open, reaching the last 64 stage. The same year he qualified for the World Matchpl ...

in the final. However, his season ended in disappointment when he lost in the first round of the

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

Jason Cullen Jason Cullen (born 11 June 1988) is an Irish professional darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. Darts career Cullen represented the Republic of Ireland in the WDF Europe Cup Youth in 2004 and was runner-up in ...

. Atkins was unseeded for the 2014 World Championship and faced eighth seed

Jeffrey de Graaf Jeffrey de Graaf (born 21 November 1990) is a Dutch-born Swedish professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He was the runner-up at the 2015 BDO World Trophy, and moved from the BDO to the PDC in 2016. ...

in the first round. Despite competing with an elbow injury sustained on New Year's Day, and despite de Graaf throwing for two of the sets, Atkins won the match 3–0, finishing with a 135 checkout on the bullseye. However, Atkins had to withdraw during his second round match against

Rick Hofstra Rick Hofstra (born 21 April 1977) is a Dutch former professional darts player. Career Hofstra reached the quarter-finals of the 2001 Belgium Open and the 2002 Swiss Open before making his major debut in the 2003 International Darts League, wh ...

while trailing 2–0 in sets.

PDC

Announced on 9 December 2017, he will be joining the rival organisation 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 ...

for the first time in his career. He has played most of the BDO tour but has decided to give the PDC tour a go for the first time after playing his whole career in the BDO.

BDO

As of May 2018, it would seem he returned to the BDO circuit due to an unsuccessful run on the PDC circuit.

World Championship results

BDO

* 2005: 1st round (lost to Robert Thornton 0–3) * 2006: 2nd round (lost to

3–4) * 2007: 2nd round (lost to

Phil Nixon Phillip Nixon (13 March 1956 – 9 August 2013) was an English darts player from Ferryhill, County Durham. He was the runner up in the 2007 BDO World Darts Championship in his first appearance. Career Before the 2007 BDO World Darts Champio ...

1–4) * 2008: 1st round (lost to

2–3) * 2009: 2nd round (lost to Gary Robson 1–4) * 2010: 1st round (lost to Paul Carter 1–3) * 2011: 1st round (lost to

2–3) * 2012: Quarter-final (lost to

1–5) * 2013: 1st round (lost to

1–3) * 2014: 2nd round (withdrew while trailing

0–2) * 2016: 2nd round (lost to

Richard Veenstra Richard Veenstra (born 10 July 1981) is a Dutch professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. Veenstra previously played in British Darts Organisation (BDO) tournaments, where he won the 2019 Dutch Open, a ...

0–4) * 2017: 1st round (lost to Jamie Hughes 1–3)

Performance timeline

References

External links

Official websiteProfile and stats on Darts Database
{{DEFAULTSORT:Atkins, Martin English darts players 1965 births Living people British Darts Organisation players Professional Darts Corporation associate players