FORGOTTEN DARTERS: 'Diamond' Dave Askew a former two time PDC World Darts Championship semi-finalist

In this column, we regularly look back on Forgotten Darters from the past. Today is the turn of 'Diamond' Dave Askew.

Askew was born April 3, 1963, in the English town of Redhill. In addition to darts, he earned his living as a bricklayer. In 1988 he made his first appearance by winning the Denmark Open. In the final he somewhat surprisingly won from the higher-ranked Cliff Lazarenko.

A year later he won the Cockney Classic, then a TV tournament, by beating Steve Smith in the final. In 1993, he lost the final of the British Open and was also a losing finalist at the Sky Darts Masters. Because of his good performance that year he was allowed to play at the BDO World Championship for the first time in early 1994. Without much success, however, because after a 3-0 defeat against his compatriot Ian Sarfas, the first round was his finish.

A year later he was there again at Lakeside Country Club and this time he managed to finish his opening match with a hard-fought 3-2 victory against Steve Beaton. In the second round, however, Raymond van Barneveld was too strong 3-0.

The next few years there was little success for Askew and early 2000 he decided to switch to the PDC. Soon he managed to achieve good results there with finals at the German Open and at the Golden Harvest North American Cup. A win at the Windy City Open even allowed him to start the World Championship as the eighth series leader. At that Worlds, he defeated Mick Manning, Alex Roy and Jamie Harvey in succession. In the semifinals Phil Taylor was far too strong, 6-0. That same year he also reached the quarter-finals at the World Grand Prix, his best performance at a major besides the World Championship.

A year later, 'Diamond Dave' neatly repeated that performance at the World Championship. After wins against Chris Mason, Roland Scholten and Dennis Priestley, it was again Phil Taylor who was too strong 6-0 in the semifinals. Askew was at the PDC World Championship every year until 2008, but he never made it past the third round.

After that, Askew's career went downhill fast, in 2010 he played his last official PDC tournament. Nowadays, his son Jason is trying to follow in his footsteps.