Garry Thompson (darts player)

Garry Thompson (born 9 January 1965) is an English former professional darts player who played in British Darts Organisation (BDO) tournaments.

Garry Thompson
Personal information
Nickname"The Recliner"
Born (1965-01-09) 9 January 1965 (age 59)
Doncaster, Yorkshire, England
Home townSilsden, Yorkshire, England
Darts information
Playing darts since1986
Darts21 Gram
LateralityRight-handed
Walk-on music"Glory Glory" by Geoffrey Oi!Cott
Organisation (see split in darts)
BDO2004–2019
WDF major events – best performances
World Ch'shipQuarter-final: 2010, 2011
World MastersLast 16: 2010
Finder MastersLast 24 Group: 2010
Other tournament wins
TournamentYears
British Open
Scottish Open
Swedish Open
Welsh Classic
2013
2008
2012
2008
Other achievements
2013 England National Championships
2012 Lancashire Open
2014 Lincolnshire Open
2014 Teesside Open

Career

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Thompson reached the quarter-finals of the 2004 British Open, beating Tony David and Darryl Fitton before losing to Phill Nixon. He then reached the quarter-finals of the 2007 Belgium Open, again beating Fitton along the way. He lost to Robbie Turner.

On 17 February 2008 Thompson caused a major surprise by winning the 2008 Scottish Open, with notable wins against Steve Coote, World Masters champion Robert Thornton and former World Champion Martin Adams before beating Shaun Greatbatch in the final. He received £2,000 for his efforts and as a result, he shot up the BDO and WDF rankings. Thompson then won the unranked Welsh Classic, beating the Netherlands' Joey ten Berge in the final.

Thompson earned automatic qualification for the 2009 BDO World Championship, entering the tournament as the number 14 seed. He was drawn against Northern Ireland's Daryl Gurney in the first round but lost 3-1.

In 2009, Thompson reached the quarter-final stage in the German Open, IDPA Lakeside Classic and the Denmark Open but his defense of the Scottish Open ended in the early stages of the competition.

2010 saw Garry reach the quarter-finals of the World Championship. He defeated Ross Montgomery, the sixth seed, in the decided set after Montgomery missed six darts to win the match. He then swept aside the previously impressive Martin McCloskey 4-1 with some much-improved finishing. In the quarter-final he took two sets off the eventual champion Martin Adams but was ultimately outplayed.

Thompson was seeded 10th for the 2011 BDO World Championship, and once again reached the quarter-final stage. He beat German teenager Arno Merk 3–1 in the first round, and Alan Norris 4-2 in the second round, but in the quarter-final he lost 5-4 to Jan Dekker having led 3-0 and 4-2 in sets and missing nine darts at doubles to win the match. Had Thompson won the match and gone on to win his semi-final as well, he would have played the final on his 46th birthday.

Thompson was unseeded for the 2012 BDO World Championship, and was defeated 3-1 by débutante Paul Jennings in the first round.[1]

Thompson was once again unseeded at the 2013 BDO World Championship, but this time won his first round match 3-1 over Gary Robson. In the second round, Thompson was once again defeated by Dekker in a deciding set, 4-3, having led 3-2.

Thompson won the BDO British Open in 2013, arguably his biggest victory to date, beating James Wilson in the final. Despite this, Thompson only qualified for the 2014 World Championship as a preliminary and lost his prelim match to Jim Widmayer after leading 2-1 in sets and having several chances to break Widmayer's throw in the deciding set.

World Championship results

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Performance timeline

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BDO

Tournament 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
BDO World Championship DNQ 1R QF QF 1R 2R PR DNQ
Winmau World Masters L40 L72 L16 L40 L32 L272 L272 L80
Finder Darts Masters DNQ RR DNQ

Personal life

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Garry currently resides in Silsden, West Yorkshire, with his partner Tina and son Jack.

References

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  1. ^ "BBC Sport - Martin Adams faces Scott Mitchell in BDO World Championship opener". BBC Sport. 8 November 2011. Retrieved 8 November 2011.
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