James Wade

Explore about the Famous Darts Player James Wade, who was born in United Kingdom on April 6, 1983. Analyze James Wade’s net worth, age, bio, birthday, dating, height-weight, wiki. Investigate who is James Wade dating now? Look into this article to know how old is James Wade?

James Wade Biography

Champion professional darts player who became the youngest player to win the World Matchplay tournament at the age of 24 in 2007.

He began his professional career in 2001, at age twenty-one.

He won the World Grand Prix in 2007 and 2010.

He had a long relationship with Helen Chamberlain .

He and actor Martin Freeman were both born in Aldershot, England.

James Wade (born 6 April 1983 in Aldershot, Hampshire) is an English professional darts player, currently playing in the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). He became the youngest player to win a major PDC title at the World Matchplay in 2007, at the age of 24. This record was broken when Michael van Gerwen won the 2012 World Grand Prix at the age of 23.

Wade first took playing darts seriously at the age of 14 and won the Basingstoke Open, his first competitive event and went on to compete for England at youth level. He reached the final of the British Classic in 2001 at the age of 18, losing to John Walton and the following year he won the Swiss Open. Wade made his television debut at the 2003 BDO World Championship, but lost 2–3 in the first round to Dennis Harbour having missed eight darts to win the match in the fourth set. In other BDO Open events during 2003, he reached the Norway Open final, Belgian Open semi-finals and Dutch Open quarter-finals.

Wade started his career in the British Darts Organisation (BDO) in 2001 before joining the Professional Dart Corporation (PDC) in 2004. His best performance in a major BDO tournament came at the International Darts League in 2004 and 2007, reaching the quarter finals on both occasions.

In May 2004, Wade took the decision to forfeit his automatic place in the 2004 World Darts Trophy and 2005 BDO World Championship to join the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). His first PDC major was the 2004 UK Open, where he was edged out 8–7 in the fourth round by Colin Lloyd. He came through the World Championship Qualifiers to make his PDC World Darts Championship debut in 2005, losing 3–0 in the first round to Mark Holden. Wade bounced back from this to win the Irish Masters and moved closer to the top 32 in the world for the first time. He lost 11–4 to Peter Manley in the last 16 of the UK Open and 3–1 against Roland Scholten in the last 16 of the Las Vegas Desert Classic (after beating the experienced Ronnie Baxter in the prior round). In his second World Championship appearance he lost again in the first round, this time 3–2 to Wayne Jones, despite having won the first six legs for a two-set lead.

At the 2004 BDO World Championship, he beat Shaun Greatbatch 3–0 in the first round, before losing to Darryl Fitton. Later in 2004, he reached a series of quarter-finals including the German Open, the Isle of Man Open and the prestigious International Darts League in May – which was his last tournament as a BDO affiliated player.

Wade quit his job at a garage in Aldershot twelve days before the start of the 2006 World Matchplay, becoming a full-time professional darts player. Many have theorised he was made redundant after missing too many days work to practice darts.

He became the first player to hit three tournament nine-dart finishes in a calendar year during 2006. They came at the North-West UK Open Regional Final in March, the PDPA Players Championship at Hayling Island in June and he completed his hat-trick at the Vauxhall Men’s Open in November. None of these achievements were in televised competitions.

Whilst it is somewhat traditional for a darts player to adopt a sobriquet, Wade has adopted several in his career so far. His first nickname, The Gladiator, was used during his breakthrough year of 2006. His nickname was changed following his nine-dart exploits that year to 009 – a take on James Bond’s 007. The 009 nickname was used from December 2006 to October 2007.

Wade hit two nine-dart finishes in the early part of 2006, but when he was defeated in the qualifiers for the Las Vegas Desert Classic he decided to give up his job as a mechanic and become a full-time darts professional. The results of this were evident almost immediately as he made his major breakthrough on television during the 2006 World Matchplay in July. He sensationally reached the final, seeing off four experienced players in his first ever appearance at the Winter Gardens. Wade beat Denis Ovens in the first round 10–1, having had darts to make it a 10–0 whitewash, 2004 World Championship finalist Kevin Painter 13–9 in the second round, ending one leg with two double 20’s to cause a minor controversy, and beat Chris Mason 16–4 in his quarter-final. In the semi-finals he came back from 1–5 down to beat Roland Scholten 19–17 in extra legs, as a player is required to win the match by two clear legs in the Matchplay. In the final he played Phil Taylor but despite being 8–5 up, he lost 18–11. In the rest of 2006 in the non-televised events he reached three semi-finals and a final, before he won the Vauxhall Men’s Singles by defeating Ronnie Baxter 5–3 in the final, having hit his third nine-darter of the year in the semi-finals of the event.

Wade came within one dart of achieving the first ever nine-darter with a double start at the 2007 World Grand Prix in Dublin. In the semi-final against van Barneveld he hit double top to open the leg, then six treble 20s, treble 17 then missed a bullseye for a unique nine-darter.

In November 2007, during the 2007 Grand Slam of Darts – Wade introduced himself on a television promo as having “no nickname”. In December 2007, following a competition which invited fans to provide him with a new nickname, Wade briefly became known as Spectacular, a play on the fact that Wade is one of the few players who wears spectacles when he plays. He was briefly known as The Wingman . He cited his dislike for the insinuations the name lead to and fans asking him to make social appearances after matches. For his Premier League debut in January 2008, Wade unveiled another nickname – The Machine, which he has used ever since.

In the semi-finals of the World Matchplay, Wade ended Phil Taylor’s 38 match winning streak in the event stretching back to 2007 by beating him 17–14. He lost in the final for the fifth time this time 18–12 to Van Gerwen. Wade played Taylor in the final of the Perth Darts Masters and lost 11–7. He suffered a surprise 2–1 defeat to Mensur Suljović in the first round of the World Grand Prix. In October, Wade won through to the final of the 20th Players Championship and in doing so became the second player to reach 100 quarter-finals on the Pro Tour. He lost 6–2 to Gary Anderson. Wade was knocked out in the second round of the European Championship, Grand Slam and Players Championship Finals.

Wade won his first matches in the PDC World Championship in 2007 by beating Warren French and Dave Ladley to reach the last 16, where Terry Jenkins was a 4–3 victor. He was then awarded with the PDC’s Young Player of the Year and his world ranking had climbed to number 11.

Since winning the World Matchplay in 2007, Wade has also won the World Grand Prix in 2007 and 2010, the UK Open in 2008 and 2011, the Premier League in 2009, the Championship League in 2010, the Masters in 2014, the European Championship and the World Series of Darts Finals in 2018. Wade has had a career-high ranking of second in the PDC Order of Merit. He has yet to win the PDC World Darts Championship, with the semi finals being his best result.

On 20 November 2008, Wade completed his first live nine-darter hitting two 180s then T20, T19 and D12 against Gary Anderson in the second round of the 2008 Grand Slam of Darts which was shown on ITV4. However, Anderson went on to win the match 10–8, therefore Wade became the first man to hit a nine-dart finish in a major televised tournament in the UK and then go on to lose the match. (Michael van Gerwen had previously done so in a tournament on Dutch television.) Wade was also the first left-handed player to hit a live nine-darter.

At the 2008 World Championship Wade reached the quarter-finals and was defeated 5 sets to 4 in a close encounter against John Part, who went on to win the tournament. Wade made his debut in the Premier League as he was in the top four of the Order of Merit and on the opening night became the first player to defeat Taylor in the tournament’s three-year history, winning the match 8 legs to 6. Taylor however exacted revenge with a 16–8 victory in the final on 26 May 2008 after Wade had defeated van Barneveld in the semi-finals. Incredibly, Wade claimed his third major title in a year at the UK Open, by beating American Gary Mawson 11–7 in the final. The following month, he reached the finals of the Las Vegas Desert Classic, losing 13–7 to Taylor. Then in July he reached his third World Matchplay final in a row, losing for the second time in three years in the final to Taylor 18–9, making this the third major final loss of the year against Taylor. In the defence of his World Grand Prix title he lost to Tony Eccles in the first round. He returned to form to claim two Players Championship titles in the autumn and also hit his first televised nine-darter in a second round loss to Gary Anderson at the Grand Slam of Darts.

In the 2009 World Championship, Wade went a stage further than the previous year, reaching the semi-finals where he lost 4–6 to Raymond van Barneveld. Wade won the 2009 Premier League Darts tournament, defeating Mervyn King 13–8 at the Wembley Arena. However, he failed to defend his UK Open title in 2009 after losing to Peter Manley 9–8 in the third round. He then failed to reach the World Matchplay final for the first time, losing in the quarter-finals to Ronnie Baxter.

Wade reached another major final in 2010 at the Grand Slam, seeing both Terry Jenkins and Mervyn King squander match darts against him before Wade himself threw away an 8–0 lead against BDO player Scott Waites as Waites won 16–12.

Wade won the 2010 World Grand Prix, beating Adrian Lewis 6–3 in the final. Four days later, he won his second major tournament inside a week by defeating Taylor 6–5 in the 2010 Championship League Darts final.

Defending his Premier League title, Wade reached the final of the 2010 Premier League, where he played against Phil Taylor. Taylor won 10–8, hitting two nine-dart finishes during the match.

Wade lost to an on-fire Simon Whitlock in the quarter-finals of the 2010 World Championship. Whitlock won 5–3 in sets.

James Wade was the number two seed for the 2011 World Championship due to his World Grand Prix and Champions League Darts victories. However, Wade was beaten by world number 47 Mensur Suljović 4–2 in the second round. He got off to a poor start in the Premier League of Darts losing 8–3 to an on form Mark Webster he went on to defeat World Champion Adrian Lewis 8–6 in week 2 and then lost 8–5 to Simon Whitlock; during the match he took some stick from the Belfast crowd. He regained some form in the latter weeks of the League drawing with Raymond Van Barneveld 7–7 while averaging over 100. In June he won his 7th major title 2011 UK Open Darts after an 11–8 win against Wes Newton. At the 2011 World Matchplay, he reached his fourth final and third against Phil Taylor. Wade beat Raymond van Barneveld and Adrian Lewis en route, before losing to Taylor in the final 18–8.

Wade dropped just one set to reach the quarter-finals of the 2012 World Championship, but was then involved in two of the best games ever witnessed at the event. He played John Part in the last 8 and raced into a 3–1 lead before the Canadian won three sets in a row. Wade took the game into a deciding set and the players broke each other’s throws twice to require a sudden-death leg, which he managed to win by taking out 85 with Part on 40. He played defending champion Adrian Lewis in the semi-finals and looked to be heading for his first PDC World final as he led 5–1. Lewis pulled a set back, before Wade had a dart at double 18 to win the match. He missed and it proved to be a pivotal moment as Lewis took the set and reeled off 10 straight legs to complete a sensational comeback 5–6. Despite the loss, Wade moved up to third in the PDC Order of Merit overtaking Gary Anderson.

Wade bettered his record of 4 PDC titles in one calendar year, by winning his 5th Players Championship event of the year at PC 24, defeating Dave Chisnall 8–6 in the final. Wade defeated John Henderson 2–1 in the first round of the 2019 World Grand Prix (darts). Wade went down to Mervyn King (darts player) 1–3 in the round of 16. James’ attempt at defending his 2018 European Championship title ended abruptly in the 1st round of the 2019 event as he was whitewashed 0-6 by Welshman Jonny Clayton. James lost to Jonny Clayton 5-6 once more at the 2019 World Series of Darts Finals. Wade picked up his form again at the 2019 Grand Slam of Darts, winning his opening 2 group stage matches, 5–2 against Wesley Harms and 5–4 against Ian White. He was then defeated by Steve Lennon in the final group stage match and lost to Adrian Lewis 9-10 in last 16. Wade defeated Ted Evetts and Ricky Evans in the 1st and 2cd rounds of the 2019 Players Championship Finals, respectively. Wade lost 10-6 to Michael van Gerwen in the 3rd round.

James defeated Japanese Qualifier Seigo Asada 3–2 at the first round of the 2019 PDC World Darts Championship, a high quality, fiesty affair in which Wade came under criticism for his celebrations aimed towards Asada. Wade later apologized for his actions. In the second round, Wade would go 0–2, and 1-3 down to Keegan Brown in a hostile atmosphere before producing a remarkable 4-3 comeback win. Wade became the 7th top 10 seed to crash out before the Quarter-Final stage, losing 4-3 to Ryan Joyce in the round of 16. Wade was picked for the 2019 Premier League Darts on the 10-year anniversary of him winning the event. Wade’s 2019 Masters (darts) campaign began with a 10–7 victory of Gerwyn Price. He followed the win with victories over Joe Cullen in the Quarter-Finals and Peter Wright in the Semi-Finals to set up a final with Michael van Gerwen. Wade lost the final 11-5 to Van Gerwen. Wade kicked off the 2019 Premier League Darts in style with a 7–4 win over outgoing Raymond van Barneveld with a 99 average. In week 4 of the 2019 Premier League Darts he beat Michael van Gerwen 7-3 Averaging 95.65. Wade continued his excellent form at the UK Open, dismantling fellow countryman James Wilson (darts player) 10–1 in the 4th round. Wade followed up the victory with a 10–7 win over Max Hopp but was surprisingly beaten 7-10 by Ross Smith in the round of 16. In week 5 of the 2019 Premier League Darts, James averaged 110 in his 7-0 whitewash win over Daryl Gurney sending him to the summit of the league table. Wade hit a 9-darter in a German Darts Championship match which he lost 5-6 to Darren Webster. Wade won Players Championship 9 in Barnsley defeating the likes of Mark Webster, Christian Kist, Peter Hudson, Aaron Monk, Adrian Lewis, Scott Baker and Michael Smith in the final. The tournament victory was his first on the Players Championships since 2015 and the 12th Players Championship of his career. Wade followed the win up with another title in Barnsley the following week – Players Championship 11 – beating Michael Smith in a repeat final, 8–6. Wade made it a back-to-back double in Barnsley and 3 out of 4, winning Players Championship 12, defeating the likes of Luke Woodhouse, Christian Kist, Ted Evetts, Stephen Bunting, Jonny Clayton, Michael Smith and Jeffrey de Zwaan in the final. The title was Wade’s 34th in the PDC. James made the Semi-finals of the Premier League for the first time since 2013, defeating Rob Cross 8-6 on the final night of the league stage season, finishing 3rd on the table. Wade would go on to lose 10-5 to Rob Cross the following week in the Semi-Finals at The O2. Wade won a 4th Players Championship title of the year at Wigan, PC 18, defeating the likes of Benito van de Pas, Yordi Meeuwisse, Keegan Brown, Rowby-John Rodriguez, Callan Rydz, Krzysztof Ratajski, and Jose De Sousa in the final. Wade’s 4 PDC titles in one calendar year equalled a personal record set back in 2009.

James beat Ross Smith 6–4 in the first round of the 2018 Players Championship Finals. He then overcame Nathan Aspinall 6–4 in the second round before losing out to Chris Dobey 10–9 in the round of 16.

James beat Ross Smith 6–4 in the first round of the 2018 Players Championship Finals. He then overcame Nathan Aspinall 6–4 in the second round before losing out to Chris Dobey 10–9 in the round of 16.

Wade lost 2–3 to Keegan Brown in the 1st round of the 2018 PDC World Darts Championship. Wade defeated Simon Whitlock 10–8 in the first round of the Masters before losing to Michael van Gerwen 10–2 in the Quarter-Finals. James was not involved in the 2018 Premier League Darts for the first time since 2014. Wade ended his short stint outside the world’s top 10 dart players, making good runs in European tour and players championship events away from the TV screens. Wade hit an 8th career 9-darter in a Pro-tour match against Michael Smith. Throughout the year, James had some really good runs on the European Tour reaching the final twice losing both to Michael van Gerwen 8–3. Late in the year, Wade clinched the 9th major tournament of his career winning the 2018 European Championship (darts) for the very first time, defeating Simon Whitlock 11–8 in the final, having already defeated Martin Schindler, Ricky Evans, Gerwyn Price and Max Hopp in the previous rounds. It was Wade’s first major since 2014 and his first ranking major since 2011, propelling him back in to the world’s elite top 6. Wade dedicated his title and upturn in form to his new-born son, Arthur, also stating he was “dangerous” again and that the rest of the field should “look out”.

Wade fought back from 3–1 down to Michael Smith at the 2017 World Championship to triumph 4–3, winning the last seven legs of the match to reach the quarter-finals. He was then defeated 5–3 by Peter Wright. Wade suffered early exits at the Masters, the 2017 Premier League Darts, and the World Matchplay, resulting in a decade-low ranking of 10th. Wade’s hugely disappointing year continued with yet another first round defeat, this time at the hands of Steve West at the World Grand Prix. Wade’s Grand Slam campaign saw him win through his group, defeating Phil Taylor along the way. He was beaten in the second round by Daryl Gurney. Wade defeated Kevin Painter and Jamie Caven 6–4, in the first and second rounds of the Players Championship Finals, respectively. In the third round, James saw off Ian White 10–6. Wade lost 10–6 at the Quarter Final stage to Rob Cross.

Wade failed to get to at least the quarter-finals of the World Matchplay in his 11th appearance at the event when he lost 10–5 in the opening round to Mervyn King. In the inaugural staging of the Champions League of Darts, Wade was eliminated in the semi-finals 11–3 by Phil Taylor. Whilst at the event Wade broke the Guinness World Records title for the most darts in the inner and outer bullseyes in one minute with 15. He lost 2–1 in a deciding leg to Terry Jenkins in the first round of the World Grand Prix and 11–7 in the semi-finals of the European Championship to Van Gerwen. Wade played in his only major final of the year at the Grand Slam, by beating Anderson 16–14, but Van Gerwen won 10 of the final 13 legs to defeat Wade 16–8.

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