Steve Brown (darts player)
Encyclopedia
Steve Brown is an English-born American darts player who had the majority of his success during the 1990s when he finished third at the inaugural Professional Darts Corporation
's version of the World Championship in 1994 - after the majority of top players decided to separate from the British Darts Organisation
.
During that successful run in the 1994 PDC World Darts Championship
Brown beat Kevin Spiolek
, Keith Deller
and Alan Warriner
to reach the last four before losing heavily 0-5 to Phil Taylor. He then beat Peter Evison
5-1 in the third/fourth place play-off, a feature which is no longer staged in the event. Later in 1994, Brown also reached the semi-finals of the PDC Greene King U.K. Masters in Bury St. Edmunds.
Having played league darts from the age of 13, Brown made his debut for the Surrey
County 'B' Team (in the British Inter-Counties League) in September 1978. After three years struggling to hold down a team place, he joined the London
County squad in 1981, and by 1983, had become established in the London
'A' Team. In 1989 Brown received the great honour of being selected as London
Team Captain, following in the footsteps of such illustrious names as Eric Bristow
, Cliff Lazarenko
, and Clive Pearce.
His first World-Ranked titles came in 1988 with wins at the Dutch Open and North American Open (which he retained the following year). Another particularly successful year was 1991, when he won the Swiss Open and Darts America, and also reached the final of the French Open, Malta Open and German Open. He was also a semi-finalist at the Belgium Open and a quarter-finalist in the Dutch Open. Despite this success, he never competed at the World Championship until the devastating split in the game
. That was when the PDC (then known as the World Darts Council) field was boosted by a number of North American players who qualified for events alongside the 16 players who had left the BDO to form their own organisation.
He competed at the PDC World Championship each year between 1994 and 2004, but was unable to repeat the form he showed at that first event in 1994 - only reaching the last 16 in 1999 and 2000. His best performance at the World Matchplay
came in 2000 when he made it to the quarter-finals but lost heavily to Ronnie Baxter
.
Brown has also had success on the North American darts circuit reaching several World-Ranked finals including the 1998 Calgary Golden Harvest (losing to Rod Harrington
), the 1999 Cleveland Darts Extravaganza (losing to Alan Warriner
), the 2001 Blueberry Hill Open (losing to John Part
), and the 2006 U.S.A. Darts Classic (losing to David Marienthal). He won the 2004 Windy City Open and was runner-up the following year, and most recently won the 2009 Houston Open. In fact, Brown is one of a very small handful of players to have won World-Ranked events in three different decades, and is also the only player to hold all three ADO National Championships simultaneously.
He is also the only American male to be inducted into both the US National Darts Hall of Fame, and the Golden Harvest International Darts Hall of Fame.
Brown lost out controversially on a place at the 2008 Lakeside World Championship
. He made it to the semi-finals of the qualifiers in Bridlington - only to lose to Michael Rosenauer
who then beat Swedish player Kenneth Hogwall to qualify for Lakeside. Rosenauer had also achieved qualification status for the PDC World Championship and elected to choose that championship instead - thus upsetting those players who he had knocked out of the qualifiers for the BDO version.
After a somewhat disappointing 2008, Brown returned to form the following year. In addition to finishing the year as ADO #1, he claimed a spot on the US World Cup team for the 2009 WDF World Cup which was held in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. This was Brown's third time on a US World Cup Team, following South Africa (1999) and Malaysia (2001). Brown also came close to qualifying for the 2010 BDO World Darts Championship
by way of the BDO Invitational Table, and had he done so, would have been the first American ever to qualify for Lakeside via the rankings.
He recently competed at the 2010 World Masters, where he lost to Scotland's John Henderson in the third round, and again reached the semi-finals of the BDO World Championship playoffs, losing to eventual qualifier Jan Dekker. Brown finished 201 ranked as US #1 (for the fourth time) by the ADO.
Steve Brown is sponsored by the St. Louis Dart Shop (St. Louis, MO, USA), Cosmo Darts (Japan) and the Dreamland Palace German Restaurant (Foster Pond, IL, USA).
, which is included in the St. Louis Metro area. His favorite sports are speedway
and football (soccer) - he supports AFC Wimbledon
- and he also enjoys fishing, particularly catfishing. Other hobbies include cooking, classical music, and visiting cemeteries and graves of the famous.
Steve's father, Ken was also a noted darts player during the 1970s, and was the first player ever to play in an official international match. In March 1974, Ken represented a Great Britain (BDO) team which played against the USA in New York. He was first on, beating Nicky Virachkul
2-1. Ken Brown's best tournament result came in reaching the last 16 of the Winmau World Masters
in 1976. He also represented England six times (winning five) including a Man-of-the Match performance against Wales in 1978 (his last England appearance), and partnered Sandra Gibb to victory in the Mixed Doubles event in Yorkshire TV's Indoor League.
Professional Darts Corporation
The Professional Darts Corporation is a professional darts organization, established in the United Kingdom during 1992, when a group of leading professional players split from the British Darts Organisation to form what was initially called the World Darts Council...
's version of the World Championship in 1994 - after the majority of top players decided to separate from the British Darts Organisation
British Darts Organisation
The British Darts Organisation, or the BDO for short, is a darts organisation founded on 7 January 1973 by Olly Croft, OBE. The BDO is a founder member of the World Darts Federation which was formed in 1976....
.
During that successful run in the 1994 PDC World Darts Championship
1994 PDC World Darts Championship
The 1994 Skol World Darts Championships was held following 18 months of controversy within the sport of darts. After the 1993 Embassy World Championships, several players decided it was time to part company with the British Darts Organisation and form their own organisation. The new organisation...
Brown beat Kevin Spiolek
Kevin Spiolek
Kevin Spiolek is an English darts player who played during the 1980s and 1990s. He made a brief return to form in 2006 when qualifying to play in the PDC World Darts Championship....
, Keith Deller
Keith Deller
Keith Deller is an English darts player, who won the Embassy World Professional Darts Championship in 1983. He was the first qualifier ever to win the championship and remains one of the youngest champions in history...
and Alan Warriner
Alan Warriner-Little
Alan Warriner-Little is an English professional darts player. He currently lives in Crosby, Cumbria and plays with the nickname The Iceman...
to reach the last four before losing heavily 0-5 to Phil Taylor. He then beat Peter Evison
Peter Evison
Peter Evison is a darts player who has enjoyed a long career in the game. His greatest achievements were to win the 1989 Winmau World Masters and the 1996 World Matchplay. He has also come close to winning the World Championship on a number of occasions.Before appearing in a major tournament...
5-1 in the third/fourth place play-off, a feature which is no longer staged in the event. Later in 1994, Brown also reached the semi-finals of the PDC Greene King U.K. Masters in Bury St. Edmunds.
Having played league darts from the age of 13, Brown made his debut for the Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
County 'B' Team (in the British Inter-Counties League) in September 1978. After three years struggling to hold down a team place, he joined the London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
County squad in 1981, and by 1983, had become established in the London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
'A' Team. In 1989 Brown received the great honour of being selected as London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
Team Captain, following in the footsteps of such illustrious names as Eric Bristow
Eric Bristow
Eric Bristow MBE is a British darts player, whose skill at the game in the 1980s helped turn it into a worldwide spectator sport.- Early career :...
, Cliff Lazarenko
Cliff Lazarenko
Cliff Lazarenko is an English professional darts player who competed for the British Darts Organisation and the Professional Darts Corporation...
, and Clive Pearce.
His first World-Ranked titles came in 1988 with wins at the Dutch Open and North American Open (which he retained the following year). Another particularly successful year was 1991, when he won the Swiss Open and Darts America, and also reached the final of the French Open, Malta Open and German Open. He was also a semi-finalist at the Belgium Open and a quarter-finalist in the Dutch Open. Despite this success, he never competed at the World Championship until the devastating split in the game
Split in darts
The split in darts refers to an acrimonious dispute between top professional darts players and the game's governing body which began in 1992 and resulted in the formation of a new organisation to arrange tournaments - including a second version of the World Professional Darts Championship...
. That was when the PDC (then known as the World Darts Council) field was boosted by a number of North American players who qualified for events alongside the 16 players who had left the BDO to form their own organisation.
He competed at the PDC World Championship each year between 1994 and 2004, but was unable to repeat the form he showed at that first event in 1994 - only reaching the last 16 in 1999 and 2000. His best performance at the World Matchplay
Stan James World Matchplay
The Skybet World Matchplay is a darts tournament, played in a legs format, and is run by the Professional Darts Corporation . The tournament is sponsored by Skybet who take over from Stan James after 10 years.The World Matchplay has been played yearly since 1994 in the Empress Ballroom at the...
came in 2000 when he made it to the quarter-finals but lost heavily to Ronnie Baxter
Ronnie Baxter
Ronnie Baxter is an English darts player. He uses the nickname The Rocket for his matches. Baxter is known for his fast, robotic throwing action...
.
Brown has also had success on the North American darts circuit reaching several World-Ranked finals including the 1998 Calgary Golden Harvest (losing to Rod Harrington
Rod Harrington
Rod Harrington is a former English darts player. He used the nickname The Prince of Style for his matches, often wearing a suit and waistcoast for his games...
), the 1999 Cleveland Darts Extravaganza (losing to Alan Warriner
Alan Warriner-Little
Alan Warriner-Little is an English professional darts player. He currently lives in Crosby, Cumbria and plays with the nickname The Iceman...
), the 2001 Blueberry Hill Open (losing to John Part
John Part
John Part is a Canadian professional darts player, who is nicknamed Darth Maple.Part is one of only five players in darts history to be a three time World Champion...
), and the 2006 U.S.A. Darts Classic (losing to David Marienthal). He won the 2004 Windy City Open and was runner-up the following year, and most recently won the 2009 Houston Open. In fact, Brown is one of a very small handful of players to have won World-Ranked events in three different decades, and is also the only player to hold all three ADO National Championships simultaneously.
He is also the only American male to be inducted into both the US National Darts Hall of Fame, and the Golden Harvest International Darts Hall of Fame.
Brown lost out controversially on a place at the 2008 Lakeside World Championship
2008 BDO World Darts Championship
*Michael Rosenauer was originally drawn to face Mark Webster, but chose to withdraw from the event to compete in the 2008 PDC World Championship. Jones had won the standby play-off at Bridlington prior to the World Masters-Statistics:- Women's Championship :...
. He made it to the semi-finals of the qualifiers in Bridlington - only to lose to Michael Rosenauer
Michael Rosenauer
Michael Rosenauer is a German darts player who currently plays in Professional Darts Corporation events.Rosenauer created controversy when he chose to play in the 2008 PDC World Darts Championship, having won qualification for the 2008 BDO World Darts Championship...
who then beat Swedish player Kenneth Hogwall to qualify for Lakeside. Rosenauer had also achieved qualification status for the PDC World Championship and elected to choose that championship instead - thus upsetting those players who he had knocked out of the qualifiers for the BDO version.
After a somewhat disappointing 2008, Brown returned to form the following year. In addition to finishing the year as ADO #1, he claimed a spot on the US World Cup team for the 2009 WDF World Cup which was held in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. This was Brown's third time on a US World Cup Team, following South Africa (1999) and Malaysia (2001). Brown also came close to qualifying for the 2010 BDO World Darts Championship
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 champion having won the title for the second time in the...
by way of the BDO Invitational Table, and had he done so, would have been the first American ever to qualify for Lakeside via the rankings.
He recently competed at the 2010 World Masters, where he lost to Scotland's John Henderson in the third round, and again reached the semi-finals of the BDO World Championship playoffs, losing to eventual qualifier Jan Dekker. Brown finished 201 ranked as US #1 (for the fourth time) by the ADO.
Steve Brown is sponsored by the St. Louis Dart Shop (St. Louis, MO, USA), Cosmo Darts (Japan) and the Dreamland Palace German Restaurant (Foster Pond, IL, USA).
Personal life
Steve Brown lives with his St. Louis-born wife Valerie, in Pontoon Beach, IllinoisPontoon Beach, Illinois
Pontoon Beach is a village in Madison County, Illinois, United States. The population was 5,620 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Pontoon Beach is located at ....
, which is included in the St. Louis Metro area. His favorite sports are speedway
Motorcycle speedway
Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. Speedway motorcycles use only one gear and have no brakes and racing takes place on a flat oval track usually...
and football (soccer) - he supports AFC Wimbledon
AFC Wimbledon
AFC Wimbledon is a professional English football club that traces its origins to Wimbledon in the London Borough of Merton. Based at Kingsmeadow, Kingston upon Thames, the club are members of Football League Two, the fourth tier of English football....
- and he also enjoys fishing, particularly catfishing. Other hobbies include cooking, classical music, and visiting cemeteries and graves of the famous.
Steve's father, Ken was also a noted darts player during the 1970s, and was the first player ever to play in an official international match. In March 1974, Ken represented a Great Britain (BDO) team which played against the USA in New York. He was first on, beating Nicky Virachkul
Nicky Virachkul
Nicky Virachkul was a professional darts player who competed in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. He competed in the third WDF World Cup darts tournament in 1979 and won the singles title...
2-1. Ken Brown's best tournament result came in reaching the last 16 of the Winmau World Masters
Winmau World Masters
The Winmau World Masters is one of the longest running and most prestigious professional darts tournaments, which began in 1974 - even before the current World Professional Championship...
in 1976. He also represented England six times (winning five) including a Man-of-the Match performance against Wales in 1978 (his last England appearance), and partnered Sandra Gibb to victory in the Mixed Doubles event in Yorkshire TV's Indoor League.
External links
- Steve Brown results dartsdatabase