The 2000’s were a relatively unmemorable era for darts.
The PDC was still developing as an organisation after only forming in the mid-90’s, the BDO was in sharp decline with only their World Championship at Lakeside pulling noticeable TV viewership each year, and one man was basically dominating every tournament…
With that said, there was still plenty of top talent when it came to darts so in this article we’re going to rank the best darts players from the 2000’s.
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Best Darts Players From The 2000’s
8) Terry Jenkins
Arguably one of the most loved darts players of all time from a fan perspective, Terry Jenkins also had the ability to match his personality.
If you take a look at Jenkins professional darts career, you’ll find it littered with finals appearances, mainly coming up against the best players of all time including Phil Taylor, Michael van Gerwen, Adrian Lewis, James Wade and Raymond van Barneveld.
There’s just one issue with this however, Jenkins never managed to win ANY of these finals.
The Bull arguably has one of the worst tags in sport as he’s often referred to as a darts ‘nearly man’.
9 x PDC major finals with 7 of them coming in the late 2000’s, Jenkins was easily one of the best players of this era but he just couldn’t get over that final hurdle.
He was in back-to-back World Grand Prix finals (2006/07) and also back-to-back major ranking finals in 2007. In 2007 he didn’t finish lower than the quarter-finals in any major tournament either, which is some consistency!
Had he managed to just secure a single major title though, he’d potentially be ranking higher on this list…
See also – Best darts players to never win a PDC major title
7) Peter Manley
Peter Manley is a darts player who strongly divides opinion between darts fans.
He was the number one ranked player in the PDC to start to 2000’s but his ‘antics’ on the oche would often cause fan and sometimes even player backlash.
One of the most viewed darts clips comes from a video uploaded 16 years ago (before the darts and YouTube were as popular as they are today) from a bust-up with Adrian Lewis.
If you focus solely on darts though, Manley had a resume that speaks for itself.
He’s a three-time PDC World Championship runner-up (1999, 2002, 2006), World Matchplay runner-up (1999) and Las Vegas Desert Classic winner (2003).
You can see his finals appearances were spaced out in the early 2000’s, so it was like he had a purple patch and the player that beat him in each World Championship final was the same one – Phil Taylor.
Manley also had several semi-final finishes throughout the early 2000’s and while his results dropped off in the latter part of the decade. He was still easily one of the best players during this era.
If it wasn’t for coming up against the best player of all time, who knows what Manley’s legacy could have looked like in darts?
Related – 7 darts players who could’ve had better careers if Phil Taylor didn’t exist
6) Mervyn King
Similar to Manley, Mervyn King started the decade as the number one ranked player but in the BDO circuit, an organisation where he’d have the most success for the first half of the 2000’s.
Terry Jenkins had a sizeable runners-up record and while Mervyn King wasn’t far off in the PDC (7 x PDC major finals runner-up), when you combine it with the BDO, King had 16 total major tournament runner-up finishes in his darts career.
That’s a lot of finals appearances!
Fortunately, he had title success in the BDO winning the 2003 Winmau World Masters, 2005 International Darts League and 2005 Zuiderduin Masters.
King was also a 2 x runner-up in the BDO World Championship in 2002 & 2004 and was one of a dozen successful BDO players who made a seamless transition to the PDC.
His results in both divisions throughout the entire decade just edges him above Manley for us in this list.
5) Martin Adams
Martin Adams never making a permanent switch to the PDC is one of the greatest ‘what if’ questions in darts.
Phil Taylor has said on multiple occasions he could have been successful in the division but many darts fans believe Wolfie wanted to be a big fish in the BDO.
In fairness he would prove to be that.
The longest serving captain of England (1993-2013), Adams most successful spell came during the 2000’s where he went to 11 x BDO major finals.
During this decade Wolfie would win two World Championships (2007 and 2010) as well as 3 x Winmau World Masters titles (2008, 2009, 2010).
Despite the debate on the competitiveness of the BDO during this time, Wolfie is still one of the most decorated players of that era.
4) James Wade
James Wade is widely considered to be the greatest darts player to NEVER win a World Championship.
The Machine is the third most successful PDC player of all time in terms of major titles won (11) only trailing Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen.
He burst onto the scene in the mid 2000’s when he finished runner-up in the 2006 World Matchplay aged 23.
A year later he would lift that title becoming the youngest PDC major winner at that time and would also go on to win the World Grand Prix that same year.
Throughout the mid-late 2000’s, Wade was consistently ranked inside the top 3 in the world while also winning the UK Open and Premier League title, on top of the wins mentioned above.
At the time of writing this, Wade is still ranked 5th in the PDC Order of Merit, almost 20 years after first breaking into the darts elite.
That longevity is incredible and before the likes of MVG and Luke Littler, Wade was arguably the first teenage prodigy in darts and has had a career that lived up to that tag.
SEE MORE JAMES WADE ON DECENT DARTS
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3) John Part
In 1994 John Part became the first (and only) Canadian to win a World Darts Championship.
Following the split between darts organisations, Part entered the BDO World Championship as a relatively unknown play in the UK.
This was his first time even qualifying so to win the final against the established Bobby George was seen as a huge upset. Part would then see very little success in either the BDO or PDC for the remainder of the 1990’s.
In the 2000’s though, there’s little doubt he was one of the best players of the decade.
Another 2 x World Championships (2003 and 2008) were added to his resume but this time both came in the PDC.
The first of which ended an eight-year win streak from Phil Taylor in which Part would beat him 7-6 in the final.
Part would also make it to several PDC major finals during the first half of the 2000’s, these included:
- PDC World Championship runner-up (2001)
- UK Open runner-up (2004)
- World Matchplay runner-up (2002 and 2005)
- World Grand Prix runner-up (2002 and 2003)
His prime year came mainly during the first half of the decade but Darth Maple was not only one of the best players of the 2000’s, his accomplishments in darts have him on many fans’ top 10 list of all time players!
2) Raymond van Barneveld
From 2001-2006 Raymond van Barneveld went to 14 x BDO major finals. He won 12 titles during that run which also included winning 2 x BDO World Championships (to add to the pair he won in the late 1990’s).
Barney would then join the PDC and between 2006-2009 he’d make it to a further 10 finals. He won four of them including the 2007 PDC World Championship on his first attempt.
During that game he beat Phil Taylor in what is still considered to be one of the best darts matches of all time.
He was the first world champion from mainland Europe, is one of the most successful darts players across both divisions (20 major titles combined) and is responsible for inspiring a generation of talented darts players from the Netherlands.
The vast majority of his success came during the 2000’s and if it wasn’t for one particular player, the Dutchman would likely have been the best player from this era…
1) Phil Taylor
Phil Taylor is the greatest darts player of all time. He was first in the PDC rankings in 1995 and first in the PDC rankings in 2013.
His dominance spanned multiple darting eras and decades and it’s hard to say when his actual prime years were – though in the very late 2000’s he won almost every major title over a two-year span.
In the 2000’s, The Power won 7 x PDC World Championships, 8 x World Matchplay titles, 7 x World Grand Prix titles and the first 4 Premier League titles.
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Throughout the decade, major titles were very hard to come by for any player that wasn’t named Phil Taylor.
From 2000-2009 he won 43 major titles from 56 total tournaments. During this decade Taylor won 76.7% of all major tournaments among professional darts players in the PDC.
To end the decade, Taylor won every ranking major tournament in 2009 (8 in total). The only major tournament he didn’t win that year was the Premier League which was a non-ranking major.
It’s fair to say that Taylor was the best player during the 2000’s and with no disrespect to other players on this list, it looked like he was the best by quite a margin…
Honourable mentions go to Kevin Painter, Ted Hankey, Andy Fordham, Wayne Mardle and Simon Whitlock.
All had an impact in their respective divisions at the time but as we’ve already mentioned, between RVB in the BDO and Taylor in the PDC there wasn’t much opportunity for other players to win many titles during this decade.
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