PDC Career
Wayne joined the Professional Darts Corporation in time for the 2003 World Championship. His first appearance at the Circus Tavern saw him lose in the Second Round to Phil Taylor. His debut at Blackpool's Winter Gardens in the World Matchplay was much better, beating World Champion John Part, Alan Warriner and Colin Lloyd to reach the final, where he again lost to Taylor.
Wayne had till 2010 played in every Premier League except for 2007 due to poor form and disappointing results. 2005 and 2006 did not go well, and Wayne finished bottom of the table in both years. (Players who come bottom of the League are said to have won the "Mardle Cup," named in honour of him.)
Despite a poor 2006 and 2007, he found his form at the 2008 World Championship, ending Taylor's record of reaching every PDC World Darts Championship final on 29 December 2007 by defeating him 5 sets to 4 in a quarter-final match having trailed 3-0 and 4-2. Following his victory, he showed great emotion at finally defeating "The Power" on TV. Mardle was then beaten in the semi-finals for the fourth time in his PDC career by 21 year old qualifier Kirk Shepherd. He later said this was the worst defeat of his career, citing his own attitude as "disgusting".
In January 2008 Mardle was confirmed as the Sky Sports wildcard entry to the 2008 PDC Darts Premier League following his impressive performance at the World Championships. Whilst this decision was questioned by some, Mardle proved the doubters wrong with a steady campaign which saw him finish in fifth place, missing out on the Play-Offs by just two legs to Adrian Lewis.
Whilst he has reached 5th in the World Rankings and performed consistently well in the World Championship (reaching the semi-final in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2008), he has not yet won a major tournament as a member of the PDC. He has always seemed to suffer from what Sid Waddell calls the "Mardle Drift", which sees his Darts continually land in 5 and Treble 5 instead of the 20/Treble 20.
Mardle suffered hard luck during the 2009 Premier League Darts. After amassing just four points from his opening nine games, he missed week ten due to a virus. He had been due to return the following week, but was rushed into hospital the day before the matches due to mumps. With five matches to play in the final three weeks, one more missed week would eliminate Mardle from the competition. Sadly for Mardle, that occurred. Having been passed fit for a week twelve return, Mardle was re-admitted to hospital, and in accordance with tournament regulations, was removed from the tournament. His results from the tournament were also annulled. Mardle's poor form continued in the 2010 PDC World Championship, where he lost to Jyhan Artut 3-0 with a poor average of 72. Mardle continued to drop out the rankings and was ranked as low as 85th in the Order of Merit.
Mardle also attempted to qualify for the 2012 PDC World Championship via the PDPA qualifier which was held in Wigan and was whitewashed 5-0 in the Preliminary Round by Ken Dobson giving us further evidence of his darting decline.
Mardle's slide down the world rankings meant he was no longer assure of a PDC tour card to play on the Pro Tour, and had to enter the Q School to try and earn one. However, on the eve of the first Q School qualifier, Mardle announced on his twitter page that he had decided not to go to Q School and instead focus on commentating for Sky Sports and playing in exhibitions.
Read more about this topic: Wayne Mardle
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