FORGOTTEN DARTERS: Dean Winstanley: World Championship final on debut, who went 'Over the Top'

In this column, we regularly reminisce about "forgotten darters" from the past. Today it is the turn of Dean Winstanley.  

Dean Winstanley was born on Feb. 10, 1981, in Swinton. In 2010, he made his breakthrough with the WDF/BDO with final wins at the German Open, England Open and Belgium Open. Those strong performances allowed Winstanley to start that year's Winmau World Masters as the fourth seed. He eventually lost in the quarterfinals to Irishman Martin McCloskey.

In early January 2011, Winstanley got to make his debut at the BDO World Championship. At Lakeside Country Club, he survived two match darts against Martin Atkins in the first round to still win 3-2. After a 4-1 win against Robbie Green in the second round and a 5-1 victory against Stephen Bunting in the quarterfinals, Winstanley faced Dutchman Jan Dekker in the semifinals. Also 'Double Dekker' was no match for Winstanley and so he became one of the few debutants who immediately reached the World Championship final. In that final Martin Adams proved too strong 7-5.

Later that year, Winstanley, nicknamed "Over the Top," also reached the final at the Winmau World Masters. But a first major victory was again not in the cards after a 7-2 defeat to Scott Waites. In 2012, Winstanley made a second and final appearance at the BDO World Championship. After a win in the opening round against Joey ten Berge, he lost in the second round 4-3 to Alan Norris.

Immediately after that World Championship, Winstanley moved on to PDC Q-School, where he captured a Tour Card on the third day. That same year, he also reached the semifinals at the Grand Slam of Darts, where Michael van Gerwen beat him 18-6.

Winstanley made his debut at the 2013 PDC World Championship and how! In the first round, after a real thriller, he was too strong 3-2 against fourteenth seed Mervyn King. One round later he lost 4-2 to Vincent van der Voort, but with a nine dart finish he entered the history books.

In the years that followed, Winstanley was also there at the PDC World Championships, but never got beyond the third round. In the end, his career at the top was extremely short and thus he actually lived up to his nickname "Over the Top. In late 2016, he lost his Tour Card and because he had posted a video on social media with inappropriate vocabulary, he was even suspended for six months and could write off an entry to Q-School.

In the following years Winstanley, who is married to top player Lorraine Winstanley, still participated sporadically in WDF tournaments, without much success, however.