Tony Eccles

Tony Eccles

To person
Full name	Tony Eccles
Nickname	The Viper
nation	England
Date of birth	January 8, 1970
place of birth	Middlesbrough , North Yorkshire , England
place of residence	Hartlepool , Durham , England
Darts
Darts since	2000
Throwing hand	right
darts	22 g of Winmau
Enema music	"Rock This Party" by Bob Sinclar
BDO	2000-2007, 2012-2014
PDC	2007–2012
Place in the world rankings	N / A
Infobox last updated: August 9, 2014

Tony Eccles (born January 8, 1970 in Middlesbrough , England ) is a former English dart player who was under contract with both the BDO and the PDC . His nickname was The Viper and he used Bob Sinclar's Rock This Party as his run-in music.

Career

Beginnings at BDO

Eccles qualified for the first time in 2002 for the BDO World Championship, but lost in the first round in 2002, 2003 and 2004 (2002 against Wayne Jones , 2003 against Erik Clarys and 2004 against John Walton ). It was only in 2005 that he won his first match at a BDO World Championship. In the first round he defeated the Australian Tony David 3: 2, but then lost to Vincent van der Voort 1: 3. In 2006 he lost again in the first round, this time to the Dane Per Laursen 2: 3. In 2007, however, he made his best appearance at a BDO World Championship. After victories against Mark Webster (3: 0) and Shaun Greatbatch (4: 0) he only lost 4: 5 against Mervyn King in the quarterfinals. At first Eccles took a 3-0 lead, but then gave up four sets in a row and won the eighth set to force the decisive ninth set, but lost it.

Eccles was able to win some BDO tournaments away from the cameras. In 2005 he won the Dutch Open, the England Open and the Sweden Open. He successfully defended the title of the Sweden Open in 2006 and also won the Norway Open. Because of these results, he rose in the world rankings and was therefore placed in fifth place for the 2006 World Cup. In 2007 he was finally ranked fourth. In April 2007 he won the Norway Open again.

Change to PDC

On the afternoon of the UK Open in June 2007, Eccles announced that he would be joining the competing darts association, the PDC . At that time he was number two in the world rankings of the WDF and fourth in the BDO. After his move he started his career with the PDC at position 151 of the PDC Order of Merit . At his first PDC World Championship in 2008 , he immediately reached the round of 16, where he lost, however, 3: 4 to Adrian Lewis . At the 2009 World Championships he was placed in 30th position and played in the first round against the Dutchman Remco van Eijden , who had switched to the PDC shortly before. At first Eccles took the lead 2-0, but van Eijden equalized before Eccles finally won 3-2. In the second round he lost to three seeded Englishman James Wade 2: 4.

He was also seeded at the 2010 World Cup . In this edition at position 31, Brendan Dolan had to give way in his first round match and lost 3-1 to the Northern Irishman.

Return to the BDO

After an injury and average performance on stage, Eccles returned to the BDO.

Because of his switch to the PDC and his return to the BDO, the fans were not friendly towards Eccles. However, he was able to qualify for the BDO World Championship 2013 and played against Geert de Vos in the first round . At first he won the first five legs and had three set darts to take the lead 2-0 in sets, but in the end he lost 3-2 sets. Because of this performance, Eccles won back many fans of the BDO and his defeat was viewed by them as unfortunate.

Offense and Conviction

In 2014, Eccles was accused of raping and molesting an underage girl on multiple occasions. The crimes are said to have occurred in 2003 or 2004. Eccles was sentenced to 16 years in prison for this.

Tournament successes

• British Open: 2002
• Dutch Open: 2005
• Swedish Open: 2005 & 2006
• Norway Open: 2006 & 2007
• German Gold Cup: 2007
• Scottish Open: 2012

Web links

• Official website of Tony Eccles
• Tony Eccles in the DartsDatabase.co.uk database
• Profile on dartn.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Article on gazettelive.co.uk accessed on August 9, 2014