James Wade

James Martin Wade (born 6 April 1983) is an English professional darts player, currently playing in the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC).

Wade started his career in the British Darts Organisation (BDO) in 2001 before joining the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) in 2004.

He reached the final of the British Classic in 2001 at the age of 18, losing to John Walton and the following year he won the Swiss Open.

Wade made his television debut at the 2003 BDO World Championship, but lost 2–3 in the first round to Dennis Harbour having missed eight darts to win the match in the fourth set.

In other BDO Open events during 2003, he reached the Norway Open final, Belgian Open semi-finals and Dutch Open quarter-finals.

His best performance in a major BDO tournament came at the International Darts League in 2004 and 2007, reaching the quarter finals on both occasions.

Wade first took playing darts seriously at the age of 14 and won the Basingstoke Open, his first competitive event and went on to compete for England at youth level.

At the 2004 BDO World Championship, he beat Shaun Greatbatch 3–0 in the first round, before losing to Darryl Fitton.

Later in 2004, he reached a series of quarter-finals including the German Open, the Isle of Man Open and the prestigious International Darts League in May – which was his last tournament as a BDO affiliated player.

In May 2004, Wade took the decision to forfeit his automatic place in the 2004 World Darts Trophy and 2005 BDO World Championship to join the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC).

His first PDC major was the 2004 UK Open, where he was edged out 8–7 in the fourth round by Colin Lloyd.

Wade beat Denis Ovens in the first round 10–1, having had darts to make it a 10–0 whitewash, 2004 World Championship finalist Kevin Painter 13–9 in the second round, ending one leg with two double 20's to cause a minor controversy, and beat Chris Mason 16–4 in his quarter-final.

In the semi-finals he came back from 1–5 down to beat Roland Scholten 19–17 in extra legs, as a player is required to win the match by two clear legs in the Matchplay.

In the final he played Phil Taylor but despite being 8–5 up, he lost 18–11.

He came through the World Championship Qualifiers to make his PDC World Darts Championship debut in 2005, losing 3–0 in the first round to Mark Holden.

Wade bounced back from this to win the Irish Masters and moved closer to the top 32 in the world for the first time.

He lost 11–4 to Peter Manley in the last 16 of the UK Open and 3–1 against Roland Scholten in the last 16 of the Las Vegas Desert Classic (after beating the experienced Ronnie Baxter in the prior round).

In his second World Championship appearance he lost again in the first round, this time 3–2 to Wayne Jones, despite having won the first six legs for a two-set lead.

Wade hit two nine-dart finishes in the early part of 2006, but when he was defeated in the qualifiers for the Las Vegas Desert Classic he decided to give up his job as a mechanic and become a full-time darts professional.

The results of this were evident almost immediately as he made his major breakthrough on television during the 2006 World Matchplay in July.

He sensationally reached the final, seeing off four experienced players in his first ever appearance at the Winter Gardens.

In the rest of 2006 in the non-televised events he reached three semi-finals and a final, before he won the Vauxhall Men's Singles by defeating Ronnie Baxter 5–3 in the final, having hit his third nine-darter of the year in the semi-finals of the event.

He became the youngest player to win a major PDC title, when he won the 2007 World Matchplay at the age of 24.

This record has since been broken by Michael van Gerwen.

Wade has won eleven PDC majors, third in the all-time list behind Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen.

Wade has also won the World Grand Prix in 2007 and 2010, the UK Open in 2008, 2011 and 2021, the Premier League in 2009, the Championship League in 2010, the Masters in 2014, the European Championship and the World Series of Darts Finals in 2018.

Wade has had a career-high ranking of second in the PDC Order of Merit.

He is also a four-time World Championship semi-finalist.

Wade won his first matches in the PDC World Championship in 2007 by beating Warren French and Dave Ladley to reach the last 16, where Terry Jenkins was a 4–3 victor.

He was then awarded with the PDC's Young Player of the Year and his world ranking had climbed to number 11.

He then returned to Blackpool for the World Matchplay and claimed the title – his first major televised tournament success and became the youngest player ever to win a PDC televised event in doing so.

His route to the title and £50,000 cheque saw him beat Wayne Jones, Dennis Priestley, Mervyn King, Adrian Lewis and Terry Jenkins in the final.

Although Wade's victory was nothing short of emphatic over the ever-tenacious Jenkins, many believe his semi-final victory over Lewis was one of the finest performances ever seen at the Winter Gardens.

Both players averaged 101, but it was Wade's finishing, as he checked out almost 70% of his doubles, which saw him triumph 17–7.

His 18–7 win over Jenkins in the final saw him move up to world number three.

Wade also won the next PDC major tournament – the World Grand Prix in Dublin in October beating van Barneveld by 5 sets to 1 in the semi-finals and once again denying Jenkins his first major title in the final by winning 6–3.

These successes saw Wade being crowned the 2007 PDC Player of the Year and PDPA Players' Player of the Year.

At the 2008 World Championship Wade reached the quarter-finals and was defeated 5 sets to 4 in a close encounter against John Part, who went on to win the tournament.

Wade made his debut in the Premier League as he was in the top four of the Order of Merit and on the opening night became the first player to defeat Taylor in the tournament's three-year history, winning the match 8 legs to 6.

Taylor however exacted revenge with a 16–8 victory in the final on 26 May 2008 after Wade had defeated van Barneveld in the semi-finals.