Mervyn King (darts player)

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Mervyn King (darts player) bigraphy, stories - British darts player

Mervyn King (darts player) : biography

15 March 1966 –

Mervyn King (born 15 March 1966 in Ipswich) is an English professional darts player, who plays in Professional Darts Corporation tournaments. His nickname is The King.

Major finals

Organization
BDO
PDC
Outcome No. Year Tournament Opponent in Final Score in Final Ref.
Runner-up 1 2000 World Masters ENG}} John Walton 2–3
Runner-up 2 2002 BDO World Darts Championship AUS}} Tony David 4–6
Runner-up 3 2003 World Darts Trophy NED}} Raymond Van Barneveld 2–6
Runner-up 4 2003 International Darts League NED}} Raymond Van Barneveld 5–8
Runner-up 5 2004 BDO World Darts Championship ENG}} Andy Fordham 3–6
Winner 6 2004 World Masters ENG}} Tony O’Shea 7–6
Winner 7 2005 International Darts League ENG}} Tony O’Shea 13–11
Runner-up 8 2005 World Darts Trophy ENG}} Gary Robson 4–6
Runner-up 9 2008 Championship League Darts ENG}} Phil Taylor 5–7
Runner-up 10 2009 Premier League Darts ENG}} James Wade 8–13
Runner-up 11 2010 Players Championship Finals AUS}} Paul Nicholson 11–13
Runner-up 12 2012 World Grand Prix NED}} Michael van Gerwen 4–6

World Championship performances

King has reached two World Championship finals and four semi-finals since making his debut in the BDO version in 1997. He went as far as the semi-final in his debut year, losing to eventual champion Les Wallace. During his run he hit thirty 180s, setting a new record for the tournament at the time. Since switching to the PDC, his best performance came in the 2009 World Championship when he reached the semi-final, losing 2–6 to Phil Taylor.

He reached his first BDO World Championship final in 2002. He narrowly beat Raymond van Barneveld 5–3 in the quarter-finals. In the semi-finals he convincingly beat Colin Monk 5–1. He lost the final 4–6 to Tony David. King spoke on David’s performance congratulating him and commented, "I just wish I could have played half as well as he did."

In 2003, King beat Steve Coote, Dennis Harbour and Monk before losing to van Barneveld 5–2 in the semi-finals.

In 2004, King again reached the world final. During his run he beat Rick Hofstra by 3 sets to 1, Jarkko Komula 3–2, Ritchie Davies 5–4, Tony O’Shea 5–1, before meeting Andy Fordham in the final. The match ended in a 6–3 victory for Fordham, making it the second time in three years that King had finished runner-up. Again King told of his disappointment commenting "I don’t think it was a fantastic game. I just did not turn up.

His last appearance at the BDO World Championship was in 2007, where he narrowly lost a semi-final to Martin Adams 5–6.

King’s most successful PDC World Championship was in the 2009, when he beat Mark Walsh and Dennis Smith before beating Barrie Bates 5–2 in the quarter-finals. This run set up a semi-final clash with Phil Taylor. King lost to Taylor 2–6. However, since then he has been knocked out in the second round every year to Co Stompé, Andy Smith and Michael van Gerwen in 2010, 2011 and 2012 respectively.