WEBSTER
Mark

• 1. Career

Mark Webster is a Welsh former professional darts player. Nicknamed Webby and The Spider, he played in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. Webster began his career on the British Darts Organisation (BDO) circuit, winning the BDO World Championship in 2008. He became a full-time professional in 2009, having previously been a fully qualified registered plumber. He now works as an analyst and commentator on Sky Sports and ITV.

Career

Webster made progress once he was aged 12 and could play in Local Darts Leagues in public houses in his native North Wales. He started playing for the local "Golden Lion" team like both of his parents, and still plays regularly for his pub team "The Masons"

He first came to prominence in 2006, winning the 2006 WDF Europe Cup, and making the semi-finals of the 2006 Winmau World Masters. In other BDO/WDF tournaments during 2006, he won the Northern Ireland Open and reached the semi-finals of the Welsh Open. However, he underperformed in the subsequent 2007 World Championship, losing on his debut to Tony Eccles 3–0 in the first round.

In May 2007, he beat Phil Taylor in the group stages on his way to the final of the International Darts League – however he lost 9–13 to Gary Anderson. However, he added to his growing collection of titles by winning the World Cup Singles in October 2007.

Despite his lack of major television tournament wins, Webster entered the 2008 BDO World Championship as the number one seed due to his success in open events. This time around, Webster justified his status as joint-favourite for the title (alongside Anderson), as he beat Ian Jones in the first round, popular qualifier Glenn Moody in the last 16 and ninth seed Darryl Fitton in the quarter-finals. He played defending champion Martin Adams in the semi-finals, beating him 6–4 and earning a place in the final. He then beat Simon Whitlock 7–5 in the final on 13 January 2008, to become the third Welshman to win the World Championship of either organisation, after Leighton Rees and Richie Burnett, and only the second left-handed player to win the World Championship in either the PDC or BDO.

Webster did not play many tournaments in 2008, instead choosing to remain in college to earn his plumbing degree. He did though retain the WDF Europe Cup, beating Northern Ireland's Daryl Gurney in the final. Webster also had a great run into the quarter finals of the 2008 Grand Slam of Darts. After surprisingly losing his opening group game to Colin McGarry, he went on to whitewash Michael van Gerwen 5–0 and despite losing to Mervyn King, Webster went through to the knockout stages on leg difference after McGarry failed to beat van Gerwen. Webster then demolished PDC World Champion John Part 10–2 – in a battle of the incumbent world champions – to reach the quarter finals where he lost again to King. Webster then suffered a last 16 exit in the 2008 World Masters, losing to Ross Montgomery and then went out in the group stages of the Zuiderduin Masters. Having beaten Martin Atkins, he lost to wildcard entrant Henny van der Ster who claimed the quarter final spot ahead of Webster and went on to reach the semi-finals.

Webster entered the 2009 BDO World Championship as the number two seed. He defeated Dutchman Willy van de Wiel 3–0 in the first round but his title reign came to an end in the second round when he was beaten 4–0 by 2001 Lakeside Champion John Walton.