Stephen Bunting

Stephen Bunting (born 9 April 1985) is an English professional darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation events.

Nicknamed The Bullet, Bunting is the reigning Masters champion.

Bunting won both the British Teenage Open and the World Youth Masters in 2001 and also captured the WDF Europe Youth Cup in 2002.

He made his BDO World Darts Championship debut in 2004 aged 18, where he beat Vincent van der Voort in the first round before losing in the second round to former World Champion Ted Hankey.

He returned to Lakeside in 2005 but was beaten in the first round by John Henderson.

In 2008 Bunting won the Lytham St Annes Open and was also recalled to the England squad.

In July 2008 he reached the quarter-finals of the BDO British Classic where he lost to Scotland's Ross Montgomery live on Setanta.

In November 2008 Bunting captured his maiden BDO ranked open title when he won the Northern Ireland Open, beating fellow Cheshire player Darryl Fitton two sets to nil in the Final.

Bunting was successful in qualifying for the 2009 BDO World Darts Championship as the standby qualifier, but was beaten by Gary Robson in the first round.

On 21 May 2009 Bunting finished joint fourth in the Dutch Pentathlon in Oosterhout, Netherlands.

The pentathlon had a field of 20 BDO and PDC players and was won by Gary Anderson with Scott Waites 2nd and Gary Robson 3rd.

It was played in Oosterhout Holland.

Bunting competed in the Winmau British Classic on 25 July 2009.

He played Dave Chisnall in the semi-final and beat him 2–0 in sets.

In the final Bunting played Scott Waites, where he came out the eventual winner 2 sets to 1 with a 170 finish in the fifth leg.

Bunting qualified for the 2010 BDO World Championship, beating the debuting Ian White 3–0 in the first round before losing to top seed Tony O'Shea 4–0 in the second round.

The following year, Bunting once again qualified and won his first round match 3–0, this time against Brian Woods with the tournament highest average of 94.62.

Bunting then defeated Scott Waites in the second round 4–2 averaging 89.79 to reach his first World Championship quarter-final, where he was beaten 5–1 by third seed Dean Winstanley with both players averaging over the 90 mark.

Bunting was the defending champion having won the title in 2010.

Bunting started the day with a 3–0 win over Steve Gurney, followed up by a 3–0 win over Mark Davis.

In the last 64 defeated Trevor Chant 3–0.

In the last 32 Bunting beat Clive Barden 3–2.

The last 16 saw Bunting defeat Sam Rooney 3–0.

Bunting defeated Dean Jones 4–0 in the quarterfinal.

In the semi-final Bunting defeated Tony Andrews 5–1 with a per dart average of 30.27.

In the final Bunting defeated Jamie Robinson 6–3 with a per dart average of 29.10.

Bunting won the £2,500 first prize for the second time.

September 2011 saw Bunting reach the quarterfinals of the Winmau World Masters on ESPN.

Bunting had been playing all morning to fight through to the live televised stages and in the deciding match Bunting defeated Wayne Warren.

Bunting was into the last 32 and played Peter Johns from Wales.

Bunting won 3–0 in sets and played Robbie Green in the last 16.

Bunting won 3–1 with per dart average of 30.33.

In the quarter-finals Bunting lost 3 sets to nil against Ross Montgomery.

On 30 September 2011 Bunting played in the England Classic at Bunn Leisure, in Selsey Sussex.

On 22 October 2011 Bunting won his first European event at the Tops of Ghent tournament in Belgium.

In the last 256 Bunting defeated Billy Caluwaerts (Belgium) 4–2.

Bunting then defeated Marcel Blik (Netherlands) 4–1 in the last 128 round.

In the last 64 Bunting played his Lancashire county teammate Gary Hooper and won 4–2.

In the last 32 Bunting played another Lancashire county teammate and newly crowned Romanian Open Champion Joe Murnan.

He also won the 2014 BDO World Darts Championship and is a twice former BDO World Masters champion.