BACK IN THE DAY WITH: Wayne Mardle, much more than just a Sky Sports commentator

In this column, we regularly go back in time with a particular darter. Today we do so with Englishman Wayne Mardle.

Wayne Mardle was born on May 10, 1973 in Dagenham. Already from childhood he was known as a great talent, winning the British Teenage Open in 1989. Yet it took until the early 2000s for him to surface among the elite as well. In 2000, he managed to qualify for the BDO World Championship for the first time. In the opening round, however, things immediately went wrong after a 3-1 defeat to Matt Clark. A month later, however, he won the first major title of his career by taking victory at the Dutch Open. In the final in De Bonte Wever, Mardle defeated his compatriot Mervyn King 4-1.

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BDO World Championship semifinals

After also making a quarterfinal at the Finder Masters, he headed back to the BDO World Championship with renewed confidence, where he hoped to do better than on his debut a year earlier. And so it happened. Mardle, who set the crowd ablaze with his walk-on inspired by the TV show, "Hawaii Five-O", defeated Steve Coote 3-2 in the first round. After victories against Co Stompé and Ronnie Baxter, he was ready for a semifinal against John Walton. However, that proved to be a hurdle too far as the later world champion Walton eventually won 5-3.

Meanwhile, Mardle had worked his way up to the top ten in the BDO and a year later he headed to Lakeside again with the clear ambition of becoming world champion. However, after victories against Davy Richardson and Stefan Nagy, he was left stranded in the quarter-finals following a narrow 5-4 defeat to Colin Monk.

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Switch to PDC

As it turned out, that was also Mardle's last appearance at the BDO World Championship, as he subsequently transferred to the rival PDC federation. There, in his first year, he was allowed to participate immediately in the World Championship, but his adventure ended in the third round after a 5-3 defeat to Phil Taylor.

Later that year he made his presence felt at the World Matchplay. After wins against Paul Williams, John Part, Alan Warriner and Colin Lloyd he faced Taylor in the final. Just like at the World Championship, Taylor proved too strong, resulting in an 18-12 victory for 'The Power'.

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Two more major finals.

In both 2004 and 2005, Mardle reached the final of the Las Vegas Desert Classic, then a PDC major. Each time, Taylor was again the bogeyman. Mardle also made his mark at the World Championships, reaching the semifinals three years in a row between 2004 and 2006. Twice, again, Taylor was too strong with a defeat also coming to Mark Dudbridge at the Circus Tavern.

With those strong results, Mardle did move up to fifth place in the world rankings. 2008 seemed to be the year for Mardle. At the World Darts Championship he finally got rid of the monkey off his back and defeated Taylor in the quarter-finals, so the road seemed open for a first world title. Especially since unseeded Kirk Shepherd awaited in the semis. A breeze everyone thought, including Mardle as he admitted afterwards, but nothing could be further from the truth. It was Shepherd who shattered Mardle's dream and won 6-4 to reach the World Darts Championship final.

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Dramatic Premier League

A year later, Mardle was invited to participate in the Premier League Darts. That one, however, went disastrously. After barely four points in his first nine matches, he was forced to miss the tenth night due to a virus. Mardle did return to the competition afterwards, but after falling ill again he had to watch the rest of Premier League Darts in front of the TV screen.

Mardle slipped further and further down the world rankings in the following years and after losing his PDC Tour Card in late 2012, he finally decided not to participate in Q-School and concentrate on his work as a commentator and analyst for Sky Sports from then on.

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One of 'Hawaii 501's most memorable moments came away from the dart board. Mardle was competing in the Netherlands at the Masters of Darts when he was interviewed by Dutch presenter Wilfred Genee after a lost match. Mardle did not realise he was live on television, which led to a hilarious interview. Mardle was able to laugh about it tastefully years later.

Since then, Mardle has risen to become one of the best-known darts commentators in the world and is also regularly asked for advice by players. In the past, for example, he coached Devon Petersen and Joe Murnan, among others. In addition, at age 51, he is still in demand at all sorts of exhibition tournaments, where he is always good entertainment. He has not played competitively for some time.

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