World Darts Championships Player Profile # 2: James Wade

At 25, James Wade is very much a child of the PDC. One of the games rising stars Wade would have grown up watching the likes of Phil Taylor and Dennis Priestley playing PDC darts after it moved to Sky in the early 90’s.

His rise to the top was competed in 2006 when he reached the final of the World Matchplay in Blackpool where he lost to Taylor (five words you will read a lot on these pages. Taylor has pretty much beaten everyone who ever reach a final). However, 2007 was Wade’s year. He returned to Blackpool to win the whole tournament by beating Terry Jenkins in the final.

The following October Wade won the World Grand Prix in Dublin, again by beating Jenkins. More success was to follow in 2008 in the UK Open when Wade saw off the challenge of Gary Mawson to clinch victory at the Reebok Stadium.

Since then, Wade has been installed as the number two to Taylor who returned to form this year. Wade made it to the finals of the Las Vegas Desert Classic, the World Matchplay (again) and the Premier League and lost to Taylor on all counts. The fear for Wade is that he is becoming Taylor’s bunny. Wade however, will point to the fact that he beat The Power in a Premier League match earlier in the year.

However, it is for this reason that Wade may have to wait a little longer for the World title. Expect Wade to progress through the tournament until he meets Taylor and is knocked out, possibly in the Final.

Despite that Wade is a fantastic player destined to inherit Taylor’s mantle when the great man eventually steps down (although he’ll never win as many title as the Power. No one will). He is also one of the few dart players to score an elusive 9-dart checkout on TV. His nickname is the Machine and his walk on music is so non-descript that I can’t remember what it is (something crap probably).