Peter Wright (dart player)

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Peter Wright Darts pictogram.svg
Peter wright-1560117707.jpeg
To person
Nickname Snakebite
nation ScotlandScotland Scotland
birth date March 10, 1970
place of birth Livingston , Scotland
residence Mendham , England
Darts
Darts since 1983
Throwing hand right
darts Red Dragon Darts (20-26 g)
Enema music Don't Stop The Party by Pitbull
BDO 1995-2004
PDC 2004–2005
since 2008
Place world ranking 2.
Most important successes
Infobox last updated: January 4th, 2022

Peter Wright (born March 10, 1970 in Livingston ) is a Scottish darts player . In 2020 and 2022 he won the PDC World Darts Championship .

Career

Beginnings and PDC membership

Wright was given darts for the first time when he was 13. But since he couldn't afford a dartboard, he practiced on targets painted on trees. As a 17 year old he was already one of the best local darts players in London . Peter Wright took part in the BDO World Championship in 1995 , but was eliminated in the first round against the eventual winner Richie Burnett . After that he played exclusively in local English leagues for almost ten years.

In 2004 Peter Wright became a member of the PDC . He reached the final at the Eastbourne Open. There he was defeated by Denis Ovens . The UK Open 2005 was the first major tournament for which he qualified. There he reached the third round, in which he lost 3: 4 to Dave Smith. It took him a few more years to reach his final breakthrough, as he did not take part in all PDC events. He worked among other things. met with a hypnotist to combat his nervousness.

In 2009 he made his Las Vegas Desert Classics debut in a live-televised PDC tournament. He lost to Colin Lloyd in round one . However, he reached third place at a qualifying tournament in Las Vegas and thus qualified for the World Matchplay via his rank in the Order of Merit , but lost there in the first round with 1: 4 against Terry Jenkins . Due to his good results in 2009 he was qualified for the PDC Darts World Championship 2010 via the Order of Merit , but lost again in the first round with 1: 3 against Michael van Gerwen . In 2010 Wright made it to the Players Championship Finals for the first time . There he had to say goodbye again at a big event in the first round: He lost 6-2 to Wes Newton . In April of the same year he reached his first PDC final. He lost 6-2 to Phil Taylor in the sixth UK Open Qualifier .

First PDC title

At the Players Championship Finals 2011, Peter Wright reached the round of 16 after victories over Co Stompé (3: 1) and Paul Nicholson (4: 2), which he lost to Phil Taylor with 1: 4. Still, he played a good season. He reached the round of 16 of the UK Open. At the European Championship, Wright made it to the quarterfinals of a major tournament for the first time. There he lost to Simon Whitlock . At the Players Championship in Derby he reached the final, but was defeated by compatriot Gary Anderson 2: 6.

In 2012 he was seeded number 30 in the Players Championship Finals, but lost to Jelle Klaasen with 1: 3 in the first round. However, the Scot reached the second round of the UK Open again, where he lost to Raymond van Barneveld . In an 8: 6 lead, he fell out with 138 remainder, giving the Dutchman the opportunity to take the leg. Ultimately, van Barneveld turned the match and won in the end 9: 8. Wright won his first PDC title in Ireland at a tournament of the Players Championship Series 2012. In the final, he defeated Robert Thornton 6: 1, with an average of 107. At the Players Championship Finals, Wright made it to the quarterfinals. He was defeated by Kim Huybrechts 6:10.

Shortly before the end of his career

At the 2013 World Cup, the Scot met Michael van Gerwen in round two , Wright lost 2: 4. At the UK Open 2013 he reached a major semifinal for the first time, in which he was defeated by Phil Taylor. A few weeks later he celebrated his second PDC title. He defeated Wes Newton 6-3 in the final of the fifth Players Championship. Before that, he defeated Gary Anderson 6-0 within ten minutes; he averaged 118.66. Due to his financial situation, Wright wanted to end his career in 2013.

But then he surprisingly reached second place at the PDC World Darts Championship 2014 . There he lost 4: 7 to Michael van Gerwen in the final. Because of this performance, he received one of the six wildcards for the Premier League Darts in the same year , which is probably the best-attended invitation tournament in the world in terms of its performance . This gave Wright enough money again to finance his professional career. He narrowly missed the semifinals in the Premier League with fifth place. He won another Players Championship. On July 13th, 2014 Peter Wright was able to achieve yet another success: in the final of the European Darts Open he defeated the Australian Simon Whitlock 6: 2.

At the PDC World Darts Championship 2015 he reached the quarter finals, but then lost to the eventual world champion Gary Anderson with 1: 5. During the tournament, Wright caused a stir with an interview with the Daily Mail . He said that since entering the finals on the tour, he had found that he couldn't trust any other player. He also called many of his darts colleagues "two-faced" because they would talk badly about him behind his back. In general, Wright was not particularly popular on the tour at the time, as several professionals describe his show performances as disrespectful. In an interview with the Daily Record newspaper , Wright said that his job was and will continue to entertain the crowd. In his second Premier League Wright was eliminated after the first cut in ninth. However, in the final of the seventh Players Championship against James Wade, he managed his first 9-darter of his career. He won 6-5. He made it to the UK Open Final. On the way there he defeated Phil Taylor 10: 6 in the quarterfinals and Stephen Bunting 10: 0 in the semifinals , with an average of around 105 points. Only in the final did Wright fail to Michael van Gerwen with 11: 5.

Top 3 in the Order of Merit

At the Premier League Darts 2016 he only ended up fifth and thus narrowly missed the semifinals again. After he had to admit defeat to Michael van Gerwen 11: 4 in the final of the UK Open in 2016, he was the first player to reach the final of the tournament for the third time in a row in 2017. There he defeated the Welsh Gerwyn Price 11: 6 and was able to secure the first major title of his career. In the following weeks he also won three events of the European Darts Tour 2017 : first the final of the German Darts Open 2017 against Benito van de Pas (6: 5) then the final of the European Darts Grand Prix 2017 against Michael van Gerwen (6: 0 ) and finally the final of the German Darts Championship 2017 again against Michael van Gerwen (6: 3). At the 2016 World Cup, Wright reached the quarter-finals, which he lost 2: 5 to eventual finalist Adrian Lewis . At the Players Championships 2017 he played a nine-darter at Players Championship 10 against Michael Smith .

In May 2017 he was able to beat Phil Taylor in the semi-finals of the Premier League , but lost to Michael van Gerwen in the final with 11:10. There he awarded 6 match darts. Wright threw a 9-darter in the 10th Players Championship. A week later he also won the European Darts Grand Prix, where he beat Michael van Gerwen 6-0 in the final. In a Premier League win over Adrian Lewis (7: 2), he played with 119.50 the second-highest average that was ever seen on television. At the World Matchplay 2017 , Peter Wright was only able to show his usual performance in his second round game against Cristo Reyes (11: 4). Despite weak games, he still won the tournament against James Wilson (10: 8), Darren Webster (16:12) and Daryl Gurney (17:15) and made it to the final. In the final he was clearly inferior to Phil Taylor and lost 8:18. At the end of the season, Wright was third in the Order of Merit, one place better than before the season.

After a hospital stay because of three gallstones, it was not clear for a long time whether Wright could take part in the PDC World Darts Championship 2018 . He delayed the operation and toyed with painkillers. Because of this illness, he wasn't able to exercise much beforehand. He was eliminated in the second round despite an average of over 100 against Jamie Lewis (1: 4). He finished the Premier League Darts 2018 in seventh place. At the World Matchplay 2018 he reached the semi-finals, in which he could not confirm his strong performance from the previous games and lost to Mensur Suljović 17:13.

At the Masters, Wright made it back to a TV semifinal at the beginning of February. After many poor performances, the European Darts Grand Prix returned to the final in mid-May. In early June, Wright won the World Cup of Darts with Gary Anderson. A month later there was the second triumph at the German Darts Masters through a final victory over the German Gabriel Clemens. His form crisis seemed to have been overcome after the title double hit at the following Pro Tour events at the latest. The following majors then got hooked again. The last Players Championship of the year Wright won again, the day before he set the record for the highest live recorded average with 123.5 points. As in 2018, Wright was in the final of the Champions League, but could not use match darts against Michael van Gerwen and had to bow to the Dutchman again in a TV final. Then Wright fell into a small hole, from which he found out again in time for the Grand Slam, where he made it to the final, but had to bow to a furious Gerwyn Price there.

In 2020 he won the PDC World Championship with a 7: 3 final victory against his former feared opponent Michael van Gerwen and thus got his second victory in a major tournament . At 49 years and 297 days, he is the oldest player to become PDC world champion for the first time. Overall, only Phil Taylor (2013 with 52 years and 141 days) won the PDC World Championship at an even older age.

At the Masters 2020 Wright was able to win 11:10 against Michael Smith. In July he won the Summer Series, which consists of 5 Players Championship tournaments on 5 consecutive days. In August he threw his first TV 9-darter in the Premier League. There he reached the play-offs, but was eliminated in the semifinals. In Oberhausen he achieved the next major victory when he defeated James Wade 11: 4 in the final of the European Darts Championship. After the surprising group phase out at the World Grand Slam, he at least reached the semi-finals of the Players Championship Finals again. There he lost, however, 11: 4 against Merwyn King .

At the PDC World Championship in 2021 , the Scot competed confidently as defending champion against Steve West. There he won, disguised as The Grinch , 3-1. In the end he was defeated by Gabriel Clemens 3: 4 sets and was eliminated in the third round, although he had the better average between the two with 101.50. At the Players Championships 2021 he won the Players Championships No. 8 , 16 , 20 and 23 . In the Premier League in 2021 , he reached seventh place. In July he won the World Matchplay 2021 ; in the final he defeated Dimitri Van den Bergh 18: 9.

At the World Cup of Darts in 2021 , Wright took part alongside John Henderson . They reached the final together, which they won 3-1 against Austria. The World Cup of Darts is the first major tournament that Wright was able to win twice. At the Grand Slam of Darts 2021 Wright reached the final, in which he was defeated by Gerwyn Price. But just a week later he won the Players Championship Finals 2021 against Ryan Searle .

World records

  • Highest average in front of cameras: 123.5 against Krzysztof Ratajski at a Players Championship event in 2019.
  • Most 180s in one game: 24 as well as Michael Smith .

Appear

Peter Wright as graffiti in Amsterdam by the street art crew Kamp Seedorf

His trademarks are his hair dyed conspicuously by his wife in the form of a mohawk and the matching clothes, which he changes constantly, as well as his way of jumping and dancing along the stage to his break-in song. Due to his extravagant appearance, he is particularly popular with German dart fans.

His nickname Snakebite is derived from his favorite drink of the same name . He also uses this nickname in combination with his trademark for marketing purposes . Peter Wright has had his own slot machine since October 21 , which is published by Play'n GO and named after his nickname "Snakebite".

World Championship results

BDO

PDC

Successes in PDC Pro Tour tournaments

World Series of Darts successes

Private life

Wright's mother moved with her son from Scotland to London in the mid-1970s because she feared authorities were trying to take her son away. In London they lived in one of the poorest areas. Wright only knows his father from photos. Peter Wright is married to Joanne, a trained hairdresser.

Web links

Commons : Peter Wright  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ PDC Order of Merit. Accessed April 27, 2021 .
  2. ↑ a b c d "The tragic story of suffering of the bird of paradise". Retrieved December 30, 2017 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h "Peter Wright". Retrieved December 30, 2017 .
  4. ↑ [1]
  5. ↑ Darts World Cup: Peter Wright defeats feared opponent Van Gerwen and is world champion for the first time. In: Spiegel Online . January 1, 2020.
  6. ↑ Famous dart player Peter Wright gets his own slot machine ( de ) Winfest.de. Retrieved October 27, 2021.
personal data
SURNAME Wright, Peter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Snakebite (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION scottish darts player
BIRTH DATE March 10, 1970
PLACE OF BIRTH Livingston , Scotland