Steven Brown (born 25 January 1981) 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 who competes in
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 ...
(PDC) 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
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
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, later developed into a Roman temple in the 1st cent ...
PDPA Players Championship.
His consistency on the Pro Tour during 2007 saw him qualify for the
2008 PDC World Darts Championship
The 2008 Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship was the 15th World Championship organised by the Professional Darts Corporation since it separated from the British Darts Organisation. The event took place between 17 December 2007 and 1 January ...
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
The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...
, losing 1–3 to
James Wade
James Martin Wade (born 6 April 1983) is an English professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he is currently ranked world number nine; he reached a peak ranking of world number two in 2010. ...
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 competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He previously participated in British Darts Organisation (BDO) tournaments, where in 2006 ...
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 a peak ranking of world number three in the darts world ranki ...
, 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 ...
for the first time.
At the
2012 World Championship Brown lost in the first round to
South Africa's preliminary qualifier
Devon Petersen
Devon Petersen (born 4 June 1986) is a South African professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He won his first PDC European Tour title at the 2020 German Darts Championship. He reached his first ma ...
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 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
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 a peak ranking of world number three in the darts world ranki ...
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 a ...
during a 6–2 second round win over
Connie Finnan
Connie Finnan (born 20 May 1962) is an Irish former professional darts player.
Career
BDO
In September 2009, Finnan qualified for the televised stages of the 2009 World Masters (darts), World Masters. He defeated Darryl Fitton 3–1 in the l ...
, 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 who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He was the first player to hit a nine-dart finish in a "double-to-start" event (where a pla ...
6–4 and then beat
Paul Nicholson 6–3, before being whitewashed 6–0 by youngster
Jamie Lewis in the third round. He reached the same stage of the
German Darts Championship 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 Burnett (born 7 February 1967), nicknamed Prince of Wales, is a Welsh professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) and World Seniors Darts (WSD) events. He was formerly ranked BDO world number one. ...
. 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
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 a ...
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 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,
James Wade
James Martin Wade (born 6 April 1983) is an English professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he is currently ranked world number nine; he reached a peak ranking of world number two in 2010. ...
and
Jelle Klaasen
Jelle Klaasen (born 17 October 1984), nicknamed the Cobra, is a Dutch professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He previously participated in British Darts Organisation (BDO) tournaments, where in 2006 ...
, before
Adrian Lewis
Adrian Lewis (born 21 January 1985) is an English professional darts player who formerly competed in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. Nicknamed "Jackpot", he is a two-time PDC World Champion, having won the title in 2011 and 2012. ...
defeated him 6–3.
In 2015 he missed out on qualifying for the
UK Open
The Ladbrokes UK Open is a ranking major darts tournament held annually at the Butlins Minehead Resort by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) in England. The event is often referred to as the "FA Cup of darts" as it has an unseeded open dr ...
for the first time since 2006. He won the Southern Counties Open with a 6–5 victory over
Andy Jenkins. 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
UK Open
The Ladbrokes UK Open is a ranking major darts tournament held annually at the Butlins Minehead Resort by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) in England. The event is often referred to as the "FA Cup of darts" as it has an unseeded open dr ...
, but at the sixth
Players Championship he beat
Joe Cullen,
James Richardson,
Antonio Alcinas,
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 Queb ...
and
Simon Whitlock
Simon Whitlock (born 3 March 1969) is an Australian professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, having previously competed in British Darts Organisation (BDO) events.
Nicknamed "The Wizard", he won th ...
to reach the semi-finals of an event for the first time in nearly five years. He was defeated 6–3 by
Josh Payne
Joshua James Payne (born 25 November 1990) is an English footballer who plays as a midfielder for Beaconsfield Town. He has previously played for West Ham United, Cheltenham Town, Colchester United, Wycombe Wanderers, Doncaster Rovers, Oxford ...
. Brown also got to the last 32 and last 16 in two other events to qualify for the
Players Championship Finals, where he will play
Mensur Suljović
Mensur Suljović (Serbian Cyrillic: Менсур Суљовић; born 5 March 1972) is a Serbian-Austrian professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he reached a peak ranking of world number five ...
.
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 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 used in buildin ...
. He is a fan of
Bristol City
Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England. The team compete in the , the second level of the English football league system.
Founded in 1894, the club competed in the Southern League and Western L ...
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
James Wade
James Martin Wade (born 6 April 1983) is an English professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he is currently ranked world number nine; he reached a peak ranking of world number two in 2010. ...
1–3)
* 2011: Second round (lost to
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 a peak ranking of world number three in the darts world ranki ...
1–4)
* 2012: First round (lost to
Devon Petersen
Devon Petersen (born 4 June 1986) is a South African professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He won his first PDC European Tour title at the 2020 German Darts Championship. He reached his first ma ...
2–3)
* 2013: First round (lost to
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 a peak ranking of world number three in the darts world ranki ...
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