Dean Winstanley (born 10 February 1981) is an English professional darts player.
He first took up darts as a two-year-old, stopped playing at the age of 12, and then started playing again when he was 22.[1] He turned professional in 2008 and won his first event at the 2010 German Open.
Winstanley also qualified for the 2011 World Championship as the third seed. In the first round, he survived two match darts against Martin Atkins before winning 3–2. He then defeated Robbie Green 4–1 in the second, Stephen Bunting 5–1 in the quarter-final and Jan Dekker 6–2 in the semi-finals, thus making him one of a small number of players to have reached the final at his first attempt. He was defeated 7–5 by Martin Adams in the final, having led 4–3 and 5–4. Later that year, Winstanley reached the final of the World Masters, where he was beaten 7–2 in sets by Scott Waites.
It was announced at the end of the 2012 BDO World Championship that Winstanley had entered the rival PDC's 'Q School' He beat Matt Clark 6–1 on the third day to earn a PDC Pro Tour card after earlier beating Dave Ladley, Kevin Dowling, Mareno Michels and Simon Craven.[2] In April, he earned a place in the European Tour Event 1 in Vienna by defeating Gary Butcher in the UK qualifier.[3] He enjoyed wins over Paul Nicholson and Jim Walker in the event, before losing in the third round 3–6 to Richie Burnett.[4] Winstanley also qualified for the second European Tour event, with a win over Mark Jones in the UK qualifier.[5] He played Mark Walsh in the first round of the event in Berlin, coming back from 2–5 down to triumph 6–5.[6] In round two Winstanley was on the other end of a final leg decider, losing to Michael Mansell.[7]
Winstanley's first PDC major was the UK Open, where he lost to an in-form Terry Jenkins 3–9 in the last 32.[8] Winstanley's results during his first 6 months on the tour were good enough to seal a place in the World Matchplay due to his ranking on the ProTour Order of Merit.[9] He faced Gary Anderson in the first round and came back from 0–5 down to win 13–11 and set up a last 16 meeting with Ronnie Baxter.[10] There, Winstanley hit nine 180s, but only 25% of his doubles as he bowed out of the tournament with an 8–13 defeat.[11] His doubles continued to prove a weakness in his game as he missed two for the match in a 2–3 loss to Dave Chisnall in his debut performance in the World Grand Prix.[12]
Winstanley went into the last round of matches at the Grand Slam of Darts knowing a win over Simon Whitlock would secure his place in the knockout stages. He produced a superb performance to win 5–1 with a 100.63 average, before seeing off Arron Monk 10–5 and Kevin Painter 16–12 to reach his first PDC major semi-final.[13] He faced Michael van Gerwen who started the match exceptionally by leading 5–0 and 10–1 and Winstanley could never catch up as he lost 8–16.[14]
2013
His first year as a PDC player saw him finish 33rd on the ProTour Order of Merit after all 33 Players Championship, UK Open and European Tour Events had been played.[15] This was enough to see him qualify for the World Championship as the third highest non-qualified player.[16] The week before the tournament Winstanley practised intensely with five-time world champion Raymond van Barneveld, playing two four- to six-hour sessions a day at the Ducthman's home with the players aiming to take out 5001 in 50 turns.[17] Winstanley beat Mervyn King 3–2 in his debut, recovering from 1–2 down in sets and 0–2 in legs in the decider, also surviving one match dart to eventually win the final set 6–4.[18] In his second round match, whilst trailing Vincent van der Voort 0–2 in sets and having won only one leg in the match, Winstanley hit his first televised nine-dart finish and the fifth in World Championship history. He eventually lost 2–4 having had darts at doubles to win both the fifth and sixth sets.[19] Winstanley won the Best Newcomer at the annual PDC dinner in January 2013.[20] His only quarter-final of 2013 came in May at the Players Championship One, where he lost 6–1 to Robert Thornton.[21] Winstanley suffered a surprise 4–5 defeat to qualifier Dave Weston in the first round of the UK Open.[22] Winstanley produced an encouraging 5–2 victory over Kim Huybrechts in his opening group game of the Grand Slam of Darts but followed it up with 5–1 and 5–3 defeats to Michael van Gerwen and Van der Voort to finish third and exit the tournament.[23]
Winstanley secured narrow 3–2 and 4–3 wins over Wayne Jones and Darren Webster in the 2015 World Championship to reach the third round of the event for the first time.[34] He dropped the first two sets without winning a leg against Vincent van der Voort, but improved to trail 3–2. Winstanley missed one dart to take the tie into a final set and was instead defeated 4–2.[35] He lost 5–3 to William O'Connor in the second round of the UK Open.[36] Winstanley did not qualify for the rest of the PDC majors in 2015 and could not get past the last 16 in any Pro Tour event.[37]
2016
At 2–2 in sets and 4–4 in legs in their first round 2016 World Championship match, Ronny Huybrechts broke throw with a 164 finish with Winstanley waiting on 40 and then took out 104 to win in the next leg.[38] He lost 9–3 to Vincent van der Voort in the third round of the UK Open.[39] After this, Winstanley only reached the last 64 of five events and was beaten each time, eventually falling outside of the top 64 in the world.[40]
On 15 November 2016, Winstanley was fined £3,000 and suspended from the PDC until May 2017 for posting a live recording of an event showing inappropriate behaviour.[41] Having lost his PDC Tour Card, he was subsequently unable to enter the 2017 Q School.[42]
^"Qualifying School Day Three". Planet Darts. Professional Darts Corporation. 21 January 2012. Archived from the original on 23 January 2012. Retrieved 21 January 2012.
