Keith Deller

Keith Deller
Personal information
Nickname The Feller
Born (1959-12-24) 24 December 1959
Ipswich, England
Darts information
Playing darts since 1972
Darts 21g Target Keith Deller
Laterality Right-handed
Walk-on music Things Can Only Get Better by D:Ream
Organisation (see split in darts)
BDO 1983-1992
PDC 1992-2007(Founding Member)
BDO majors - best performances
World Ch'ship Winner 1983
World Masters Runner Up: 1984
PDC premier events - best performances
World Ch'ship Semi Final: 1998
World Matchplay Semi Final: 1998
World Grand Prix Quarter Final: 1999
UK Open Last 32: 2006
Other tournament wins
Tournament Years
Double Diamond Masters

Unipart British Professional
WDF World Cup - Team

Nations Cup - Team

1983
1987
1983

1984
Updated on 11 February 2008.

Keith Deller (born 24 December 1959 in Ipswich) is a former professional English darts player who won the Embassy World Professional Darts Championship in 1983. He was the first qualifier ever to win the championship and remains one of the youngest champions in history. For his world championship win, Deller used 18-gram spring-loaded darts, later banned for tournament play but now legal again. He no longer uses these darts.

Deller is the manager of two-time PDC World Champion Adrian Lewis.

Career

Deller's victory over Eric Bristow in the tournament by 6 sets to 5 was probably the biggest upset in the history of the championship. He also beat world number 3 John Lowe in the quarter finals and defending champion and world number 2 Jocky Wilson in the semi-final to become the only player in history to defeat the world's top three ranked players in the World Championship. The champion's prize money in 1983 was £8,000.

His checkout of 138 to clinch the trophy is amongst the most memorable in darting history.[1] Bristow had left himself 50 to stay in the match, but decided to throw for single 18 to leave double 16 instead of a more difficult attempt at the bullseye. Deller then hit treble 20, treble 18, double 12 for the title, and even to this day commentators often refer to 138 as the "Deller checkout" if a player is left with that score.

Despite a meteoric rise to World Champion, his career results failed to maintain that level. On the defence of his world title, he lost in the first round to Nicky Virachkul, and he only won three further matches in the Embassy World Championship in subsequent years. He did win the British Professional Championship in 1987, but generally his world ranking continued to fall, and he even failed to qualify for the World Championship between 1989 and 1993.

Deller was one of the players who broke away from the British Darts Organisation in 1992 and joined the WDC, now the PDC. This saw him gain some more television exposure, and he did produce a few resurgent performances to reach the semi finals of the 1998 PDC World Championship and also the semi finals of the 1998 PDC World Matchplay. Deller dropped out of the top 32 of the PDC's World Rankings around 2005 and therefore has to attempt to qualify for their major tournaments – which he failed to do for the 2006, 2007 and 2008 PDC World Championships. He now competes much less on the circuit, including around half-a-dozen UK Open Regional events during 2007, preferring to perform in more lucrative exhibition matches with fellow legend players such as Bristow and Lowe.

Deller's name has been in the record books on a couple of occasions. He held the Guinness World Record for the fastest 3 legs of 301 in 97 seconds. On 13 October 1984 he was on the wrong end of a piece of darting history when Lowe hit the first-ever televised nine-dart finish against him in the quarter-finals of the MFI World Matchplay. He became the first player in history to achieve a match average of 100 in the 1985 World Championship quarter-finals; he did, however, lose the game to Lowe. Deller set another World Record in darts as recently as 7 August 2012; Deller smashed the World Records set by Dean Gould of hitting the quickest 301 at 36 seconds, which Dean beat at Olympia Great British Beer Festival on the same day by making it 33 seconds. Deller beat that record on the same event by becoming the World Record holder by taking out 301 in 25 seconds by taking out a 130 checkout by hitting the bullseye. So Deller now has the World Record of the quickest 301 in 25 seconds.[2]

Deller has for many years been part of the Sky Sports broadcasting team acting as a "spotter" for the cameras. His knowledge of the players and scoring shots helps the director and cameramen anticipate where the next dart will be thrown.

World Championship Performances

BDO

PDC

Performance timeline

Tournament 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
BDO World Championship W L32 QF L16 L32 L32 DNQ No longer a BDO Member
Winmau World Masters L16 RU L32 L32 L32 DNQ No longer a BDO Member
British Professional L32 L16 L16 SF W QF Not held
MFI World Matchplay NH QF L16 L16 SF L16 Not held
PDC World Championship Not yet founded L24G L24G QF QF SF L32 L16 QF L32 L32 L16 L40 DNQ
World Matchplay Not yet founded L16 QF L32 L32 SF L32 L32 L32 QF L16 L32 L32 DNQ
World Grand Prix Not yet founded L16 QF L16 L16 L32 L16 DNQ DNP
UK Open Not held L64 L96 L96 L32 L96 DNP
Performance Table Legend
DNP Did not play at the event DNQ Did not qualify for the event NYF Not yet founded L# lost in the early rounds of the tournament
(WR = Wildcard round, RR = Round robin)
QF lost in the quarter-finals SF lost in the semi-finals RU lost in the final W won the tournament

Personal life

Deller is married to Kim and they have two children, daughter Lauren (born 1991) and son Matt (born 1992)

References

  1. ↑ "BBC SPORT | Other Sports | Specials | World Darts Championship 2002 | Did you know...?". BBC News. 20 July 2002. Retrieved 31 May 2015.
  2. ↑ Ellison, Roland (8 August 2012). "Watch darts World Record attempt as Eric Bristow and Keith Deller go for fastest 301 at the GBBF at London Olympia - Mirror Online". Mirror.co.uk. Retrieved 31 May 2015.

External links

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