Ben Ward (born 10 December 1988 from Dorchester) is a former

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national id ...

professional darts player who plays in

Professional Darts Corporation The Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) is a professional darts organisation in the United Kingdom, established in 1992 when a group of leading players split from the British Darts Organisation (BDO) to form what was initially called the Wor ...

tournaments.

Darts career

Ward competed on the PDC Challenge Tour in 2013 and won two events to finish second in the Order of Merit behind Ross Smith. Ward was awarded a place in the preliminary round of the 2014 PDC World Championship, which was reserved for the Challenge Tour winner, as Smith had already qualified for the first round via the Pro Tour Order of Merit. Ward played against

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

Zoran Lerchbacher Zoran Lerchbacher (born 30 May 1972) is an Austrian professional darts player from Graz, Austria currently playing in the Professional Darts Corporation. Career Lerchbacher qualified for the 2014 PDC World Darts Championship and won 4–1 in ...

in the preliminary round and lost 4–1. In March, Ward qualified for his first

UK Open The Cazoo UK Open is a ranking major darts tournament held annually at the Butlins Minehead Resort by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) in England. Often referred to as the "FA Cup of darts", the UK Open replicates the abolition of see ...

but was beaten 5–0 by

Steve Maish Stephen Maish (born 22 November 1963 in Southend, Essex) is a retired English professional darts player who competed in Professional Darts Corporation events. He used the nickname Mr Magic for his matches. Career Maish made his televised deb ...

in the second round. He reached the quarter-final stages of a PDC ProTour event for the first time at the seventh Players Championship of the year, where he lost 6–1 against

Keegan Brown Keegan Brown (born 5 November 1992) is an English professional darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He won the 2014 PDC World Youth Championship. Career Early career Brown began playing darts at the age of ni ...

, who averaged 112.32 during the match. He made his European Tour debut at the Austrian Darts Open and beat

Barrie Bates Barrie Bates (born 17 October 1969) is a former Welsh darts player who played on the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) circuit. His original nickname was Batesy, but since 2007, he was known as Champagne. Career Bates made his PDC televised ...

6–4, before losing 6–5 to

Brendan Dolan Brendan Gabriel Dolan (born 2 August 1973) is a Northern Irish professional darts player from County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, who plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He is best known for becoming the first player to hit a ...

in the second round. Ward beat

Jason Lovett Jason Lovett (born 18 July 1975 from Norwich) is a professional English darts player who plays in World Darts Federation events. Career He earned a PDC Tour Card in 2015, and qualified for the 2014 UK Open, but lost in the first round have lo ...

5–2 in the preliminary round of the

2015 UK Open The 2015 Coral UK Open was a darts tournament staged by the Professional Darts Corporation. It was the thirteenth year of the tournament where, following numerous regional qualifying heats throughout Britain, players competing in a single eliminati ...

, but lost 5–1 to Mark Cox in the first round. He couldn't get past the last 64 of any event during the year and added just £500 to his Order of Merit ranking, meaning his ranking plunged to number 102. He tried to win his place back on tour via 2016 Q School, but failed to advance beyond the last 128 on any of the four days. He did not qualify for the

2016 UK Open The 2016 Coral UK Open was a darts tournament staged by the Professional Darts Corporation. It was the fourteenth year of the tournament where, following numerous regional qualifying heats throughout Britain, players competing in a single eliminati ...

and played in all 16 of the

Challenge Tour The Challenge Tour is the second-tier men's professional golf tour in Europe. It is operated by the PGA European Tour and, as with on the main European Tour and the European Senior Tour, some of the events are played outside Europe. History ...

events, reaching the last 32 once.

World Championship results

PDC

* 2014: Preliminary round (lost to

1–4) (legs)

References

External links

* Living people 1988 births English darts players Sportspeople from Dorchester, Dorset Professional Darts Corporation former tour card holders {{UK-darts-bio-stub