David Lee is an English former professional

darts Darts is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small projectile point, sharp-pointed projectile, projectiles known as dart (missile), darts at a round shooting target, target known as a #Dartboard, dartboard. Point ...

player who competed in

British Darts Organisation The British Darts Organisation (BDO) was a darts organisation founded on 7 January 1973 by Olly Croft, and dissolved in 2020 under the stewardship of Des Jacklin. Made up of 66 member counties, it oversaw professional, semi-professional and ...

(BDO) events in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

Career

Lee made his

World Professional Darts Championship The World Professional Darts Championship is one of the most important tournaments in the darts calendar. Originally held as an annual event between 1978 and 1993, players then broke off into two separate organisations after a controversial split ...

debut in

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

, defeating

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

's Tony Holyoake in the first round before losing in the second round to

Eric Bristow Eric John Bristow (25 April 1957 – 5 April 2018), nicknamed "the Crafty Cockney", was an English professional darts player and one of the most recognisable and successful players of the 1980s. He was ranked World No. 1 by the World Darts Fed ...

. After a first round exit in

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a n ...

, Lee made it to the second round in

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. ** Spain and Portugal en ...

and

1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...

. Lee made a total of four appearances in the World Championship but never made it to the quarter-finals. Lee also played in the

Winmau World Masters The World Masters is a darts tournament, initially organised by the British Darts Organisation from 1974 and later by the World Darts Federation. It is one of the longest-running and most prestigious of the BDO/WDF tournaments. The tournament w ...

five times with his best run coming in 1983, reaching the semi-finals with notable wins over then World Champion

Keith Deller Keith Deller (born 24 December 1959) is an English former professional darts player best known for winning the 1983 BDO World Darts Championship. He also won the Unipart British Professional Championship in 1987. He was the first qualifier t ...

and Bob Anderson, eventually losing to

Mike Gregory Michael Keith Gregory (20 May 1964 – 19 November 2007) was an English professional rugby league footballer and coach. As a player, Gregory played either as a second-row or loose forward, and spent most of his club career at Warrington, ma ...

. He also reached the quarter-finals in the 1984 World Masters, losing to Deller who managed to avenge his defeat to Lee 12 months before. Lee won two unranked tournaments in his career, the 1984 Double Diamond Masters, beating Bob Anderson in the final and the prestigious

News of the World Darts Championship The News of the World Championship was one of the first major organised darts competitions, which began in 1927. It became England's first national darts competition from 1947, as the years went by it gradually became international essentially ...

in 1985. He was a quarter finalist in numerous events such as the MFI World Matchplay in 1984 and 1985, the Butlins Grand Masters in 1985, the British Matchplay in 1986 and the Dry Blackthorn Cider Masters in 1987. He also reached the semi-finals of the 1988 British Open. Following a first round exit in the 1989 Winmau World Masters to Steve Gittins, Lee failed to qualify for any of the major tournaments and faded from the darts scene completely following the

split in darts The split in darts refers to the acrimonious 1993 dispute between professional darts players and the game's governing body, the British Darts Organisation (BDO), resulting in the creation of a rival darts circuit under the banner of the World Dar ...

. Lee quit the BDO in 1996.

Personal life

Lee's wife Sandra also played darts professionally, for Wales.

World Championship results

BDO

* 1983: 2nd round (lost to

2–3) * 1985: 1st round (lost to Luc Marreel 1–2) * 1986: 2nd round (lost to Terry O'Dea 0–3) * 1987: 2nd round (lost to John Lowe 1–3)

External links

Dave Lee's stats and profile on Darts Database
English darts players Living people Year of birth missing (living people) British Darts Organisation players {{UK-darts-bio-stub