There are players who have been cemented in the darts hall of fame. Eric Bristow, John Lowe, Phil Taylor, Michael van Gerwen, Gary Anderson…
The greatest players of all time rightfully get the recognition they deserve.
There are however, some players who have either won a lot or have played at an elite level for a long time, but DON’T seem to get the recognition they might deserve.
Usually it’s because they’ve been overshadowed by the bigger names of their era.
For us, underrated players are those that have been successful in the game, have won multiple titles (or come close), but for some reason don’t get talked about enough.
Therefore, we’ve compiled a list ranking some of the most underrated darts players of all time.
This isn’t just our opinion either, we had 3-4 players in mind and put this question out to darts fans on our Facebook page and certain names just kept getting mentioned…
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7) Bobby George
Our first player is debatable… Bobby George is one of the biggest personalities darts has ever had and was also reportedly the first player to become a millionaire playing darts.
A lot of this was down to his dedication to doing exhibitions, media appearances and money management. Something he still tries to advice younger players event to this day:
If you’re under 40 years old, you might only know George to be a darts showman. He made it to the final of the 1994 BDO World Championship but from that point on, he was mostly seen presenting at The Lakeside.
Many believed he wasn’t good enough to join the PDC after the split, but if you go back to the late 1970’s and early 80’s, George was one of the players to beat!
He lost the 1980 World Championship in the final to Eric Bristow (meaning he was a two time runner-up of this tournament), but won the News of the World Championship twice in 1979 and 1986.
A tournament many considered to be the best in the world during that era.
He also won the Butlins Grand Masters twice in 1979 and 1980 and won the Europe Cup Singles in 1982 beating Eric Bristow in the final.
George was arguably more successful away from the tournament oche in darts, but people often forget (or don’t know) that in his younger days he was a serious player and his darting ability maybe doesn’t always get the credit it deserves…
6) Dennis Priestley
Most darts fans acknowledge that Dennis Priestley wasn’t just a good darts player, he was elite.
He won the BDO World Darts Championship, BDO Matchplay and Winmau World Masters. After the split between the PDC and BDO, he would also win the first ever PDC World Darts Championship in 1994.
He beat Phil Taylor 6-1 in the final and with a steady and methodical throw (much like John Lowe) could have dominated darts for a period of time. The issue was, he had to compete with PRIME Phil Taylor.
After losing the 1994 World Championship, Phil Taylor would go on to win the next 8 consecutively.
It was documented that he had a rivalry with Priestley as the pair would meet in countless finals throughout the 90’s, however, it never worked out for The Menace…
Priestley would finish runner-up to Phil Taylor in seven major finals (3 x World Matchplay & 4 x World Championship) and had Taylor not existed, Priestley looks primed to have been the best player for that decade.
Unfortunately for him, Taylor did exist and they always say, you never remember the person who came second.
Priestley won enough to never be considered a ‘forgotten’ man but for a play making a dozen finals during a crossover period of Bristow, Lowe and Taylor he definitely doesn’t get recognised as one of the greats – which he could have been…
See more – Ranking the BEST darts players of all time
5) Martin Adams
Martin Adams heavily divides opinion when it comes to darting ability.
Adams is a BDO and Lakeside legend, however, his reluctance to play in the PDC is what divides opinion.
Adams is one of the most decorated players with three BDO World Championships and World Masters titles and captained the England national team for 20 years, the longest any player has held that role.
Wolfie revealed that captaining England meant more to him than joining the newly formed PDC and where players like Raymond van Barneveld would successfully make the switch, Adams never did.
This led to fans basically saying “he knew he wasn’t good enough” or “he had no competition in the BDO”.
When he won his first title, Adams was hitting 90-100 averages, a few years later it was consistent mid-high 90’s. He could win in front of a TV crowd (eventually) and clearly had the averages to compete at the highest level.
We’re not saying he could have won a PDC World Championship like Barney did, but he’d have been competitive.
He had 100+ career titles, beat PDC stalwarts like Dave Chisnall, Ross Smith, Simon Whitlock and Daryl Gurney on routine to winning championships but still gets underrated by many fans for simply never making the switch 🤷🏻♂️
4) Peter Manley
Peter Manley is the only player to have been to more than one PDC World Championship final without ever winning it.
His three runner-up finishes place him 9th of all time in finals appearances and it wasn’t just a good run of form to achieve this.
Manley did it in 1999, 2002 and 2006 and this was also a period where he would be an ever present in the latter stages (semi-finals) of PDC major tournaments.
Unfortunately, he kept meeting Phil Taylor in the final of the World Championship so there was not much he could do about that!
He would however also finish runner-up at the World Matchplay and won the Las Vegas Desert Classic, a ranked major at the time.
The issue with Manley was that fans just didn’t take to him.
His refusal to shake Phil Taylor’s hand after the 2002 World Championship final, and antics/tactics at the oche made him a very unpopular player at the time.
For his ability, he should be considered a legend of the game.
His personality and character though have made him a very unlikeable player, which ultimately leads to him being underrated. People will more often reference the controversies rather than his ability and achievements at the oche.
3) Terry Jenkins
Terry Jenkins is without a doubt considered to be the ‘nearly man’ of darts. Alongside Dave Chisnall, he is one of the best players to never win a major title.
This isn’t for lack of trying though.
Jenkins went to an unbelievable NINE PDC major finals, only to finish runner-up in all of them.
Few players will ever make it to that many finals in the professional game. Making it to that many finals is really reserved for the best of the best for whatever era you are playing in.
This really should cement him as an elite player but for the fact that he never managed to win one, it has severely impacted his reputation in the game.
Fans will always think of him as a top player but with an asterisk next to his name as a player that just couldn’t get over the line.
2) Dave Whitcombe
This man was mentioned by quite a few people and it’s easy to see why he was underrated.
Whitcombe played his best darts in the early to mid 1980s winning the Winmau World Masters twice and finishing runner-up in the World Championship twice, losing both times to Eric Bristow.
He also entered the News of the World twice, winning it once and finishing runner-up the other time.
The reason he doesn’t get talked about much though is because he was competing against three of the biggest personalities and players that darts has ever had in Eric Bristow, John Lowe and Jocky Wilson.
Whitcombe was quiet and unassuming, especially compared with the larger than life characters in Bristow and Wilson.
Other great players from that era include Kieth Deller and Bob Anderson, however, both of these are often included in the conservation of great players of all time, not just era dependent.
See more – Best BDO darts players of all time
Whitcombe is hardly ever so we (and many others) feel he is for sure one of the most underrated players of all time considering his achievements at the time.
1) James Wade
In the PDC era, only two players have won more titles than James Wade:
- Phil Taylor
- Michael van Gerwen.
Wade is one of the most successful darts players of all time, but ask anyone their ‘top 10 players of all time’ and he barely gets a mention.
There are two main issues.
Wade is arguably the best player of all time to never win a World Championship.
This hurts his CV and reputation because the narrative is that he was never able to make that final hurdle to become a World Champion.
Wade was a serial winner but not lifting the biggest trophy of them all has really kept his name out of the ‘greats of the game’ conversations.
The other issue is that he has bipolar. Bipolar isn’t the issue but before being diagnosed with it, Wade would often rub players and press up the wrong way with his comments and got a reputation for being a sore loser.
Even last year he’d straight up attack the media and PDC during post game interviews so naturally, he always gets negative media attention as a result.
29 career finals in PDC major tournaments (11 of which were titles) is a serious resume and if you showed that to someone with Wade’s name blurred out, they’d say he must be an all time great.
The lack of a World Championship and a reputation for having a bad attitude have led to James Wade being one of the most criminally underrated darts players ever!
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