BACK IN THE DAY WITH: Wayne Warren - The very last BDO world champion but received only a fraction of the anticipated prize money

In the column, we regularly go back in the day with a particular player. Today we do so with Welshman Wayne Warren, who became the very last BDO world champion ever in 2020. A man who only achieved his best performances later in life, but who, due to financial problems at the organizing federation, never received the full prize money for his world title.

Wayne Warren was born on June 12, 1962 in the Welsh town of Cardiff. At a young age he was mainly active in local tournaments and competitions, it wasn't until the early 2000s that he began competing in BDO tournaments. Warren was already 42 when he managed to qualify for the BDO World Championship for the first time in 2005. At the legendary Lakeside Country Club in Frimley Green, he was eliminated in the first round against third-seeded Mervyn King, who had lost the World Cup final a year earlier. Warren was certainly not an unpleasant player, but in the end he lost 3-0.

In the years that followed, Warren chose not to travel the international circuit and focused mainly on local tournaments. However, he did invariably appear at the World Cup qualifying tournament. There he was close to qualification several times, even missing out twice in the deciding match. It would eventually take until 2013 before he made his second appearance at the BDO World Championship. Again it went wrong in the first round, this time against Alan Norris.

In 2014, Warren won the WDF Europe Cup with the Welsh team, the same year he also won the Gold Cup. In 2015, he reached the quarterfinals of the BDO World Trophy, at the time one of the biggest majors in the association. In it, Jeff Smith was ultimately too strong 8-7.

Where his previous two World Championship appearances were unsuccessful, 2018 changed that. After winning 3-1 against Wesley Harms in the first round, he defeated another Dutchman in the second round with Willem Mandigers. As a reward, he got to take on Mark McGeeney in the quarterfinals. It became a great match that eventually came to a deciding set. In that decisive set an all-deciding eleventh leg had to bring the decision and that fell in favor of McGeeney who won 5-4.

'Yank,' as Warren's nickname goes, had a taste for it now and started picking up international tournaments as well. In 2019, he won the Antwerp Open. At the World Championship that year, he did not match his performance of the previous year, on the contrary, he went down 4-0 in the second round against German Michael Unterbuchner.

Leading up to the 2020 World Championship, the BDO was teeming with rumors. Chairman Des Jacklin had all the trouble in the world moving the World Championship from Lakeside to an ancillary venue at the O2 Arena in London. But above all, he had all the trouble in the world to get the announced prize money around. Just before the start of the tournament, bad news followed, players were informed that the prize money had dropped significantly and the winner was left with just 23,000 pounds instead of the previously announced 100,000 pounds.

Warren was sore as hell, but his ambition to become world champion was such that he decided to start the tournament anyway. In the opening round things almost went wrong, but Warren won 3-2 against Australian Justin Thompson. One round later, former World Cup finalist (at the PDC) Andy Hamilton was also defeated. In the quarterfinals Warren defeated Dutchman Chris Landman 5-3 to reach the semifinals for the first time in his career.

In the semifinals Warren faced former world champion Scott Mitchell. It was a close match in which Warren won 6-3 to qualify for the final. The final featured an all-Welsh duel against Jim Williams, who had won the World Trophy just a few months earlier. Warren had control of the match the entire time and eventually won fairly easily 7-4. At 57, Warren thus became the oldest world darts champion ever, but also the one with the lowest prize money at a BDO World Cup since 1989.

Warren became the new world number one in the BDO immediately after his world title. He had clearly gained particular confidence from that world title, winning both the Romanian Classic and the Slovak Masters in the following months. His world title also allowed him to compete at the Grand Slam of Darts for the second time, but as in 2019, he got stuck in the group stage.

However, the problems with the prize money proved to be a harbinger of the eventual end of the BDO. 2020 was the very last World Championship of this association and Warren thus remains forever the very last name on the honor roll of this World Championship. Later, Warren did have to return his World Championship trophy to president Jacklin, who sold the trophy to recover some more money.

Following the bankruptcy of the BDO, the WDF took over its role and in turn began to host a World Cup at Lakeside. Warren was there at the first edition of this tournament in April 2022. In the opening round, he was 3-2 too strong for Englishman Lee Shewan. One round later, however, the third-seeded Warren went down 3-0 against Scot Cameron Menzies.

It was also the roofer's last appearance at a World Championship. Warren remained active on the exhibition circuit afterwards, but we did not see him in action at major tournaments. Warren also did not return to action on the World Seniors Darts Tour. At 63, it seems unlikely that Warren will play in any major tournaments and the Welshman can start enjoying his retirement.