Rod Harrington

Rod Harrington
Personal information
Full name	Rodney Harrington
Nickname	The Prince of Style
Born	(1957-12-30) 30 December 1957 Boreham, Essex, England
Darts information
Playing darts since	1977
Darts	Durro Rod Harrington 21 gram
Laterality	Right-handed
Walk-on music	Sharp Dressed Man by ZZ Top
Organisation (see split in darts)
BDO	1987-1993
PDC	1993-2007 (Founding Member)
BDO majors - best performances
World Ch'ship	Quarter Final: 1992
World Masters	Winner 1991
PDC premier events - best performances
World Ch'ship	Runner Up: 1995
World Matchplay	Winner 1998, 1999
World Grand Prix	Runner Up: 1998
UK Open	Last 96: 2003, 2005
Other tournament wins
Tournament	Years
Austrian Open Belgium Open Calgary Golden Harvest Denmark Open Double Diamond Masters French Open Golden Harvest North American Cup Jersey Festival Of Darts Malta Open Swedish Open Swiss Open	1992 1991, 1992 1998 1991, 1992, 1998 1987 1991, 1993 1997, 1998, 1999 1992 1991 1991 1998
Other achievements
PDC World Number 1 (Apr 1995 to Aug 1996), (Aug 1998 to Aug 2000)
Updated on 17 February 2008.

Rod Harrington (born 30 December 1957 in Boreham, Essex) is an English former World No. 1 professional darts player and commentator and analyst on Sky Sports. He used the nickname The Prince of Style for his matches, often wearing a suit and waistcoast for his games. Harrington enjoyed some major success during his professional career including the prestigious Winmau World Masters in 1991 and two successive World Matchplays in 1998 and 1999.[1]

Darts career

Early career

He started his career before the game split into two separate organisations during the early 1990s. He accumulated many Open tournament titles including the Belgian Open (1991, 1992), Denmark Open (1991, 1992), French Open (1991, 1993) and the Swedish Open (1991). Harrington's 1991 Winmau World Masters victory over Phil Taylor remains one of Taylor's rare major final defeats - although Taylor was only a one-time World Champion at the time and had lost his world crown to Dennis Priestley in January 1991.

Harrington made his World Championship debut in 1992, reaching the quarter-finals before losing to eventual runner-up Mike Gregory. At the 1993 World Championship, Harrington was seeded fourth but lost 2-3 to Wayne Weening in the first round. After those championships, the majority of the top players left the governing body, the British Darts Organisation, to form the WDC (now PDC) in an acrimonious split in the game.

PDC career

After the WDC/PDC started their own World Championship in 1994, Harrington would be ever-present in the event for the first ten years. He reached the quarter-finals in the inaugural tournament, but his best ever achievement came in the 1995 World Championship - by reaching the final. He lost the final 2-6 to Taylor, who was winning the third of his world championship titles at the time.

He reached the World semi-finals on two further occasions, 1998 (where he was beaten by that year's eventual winner, Taylor) and 2001 (where he lost to that year's runner-up, John Part) and the quarter-finals in 1997. However, after the 2002 World Championship (where he was seeded third), his form slumped dramatically to the point where he was outside the top 16 by 2003 - and a first round defeat by Alan Warriner would turn out to be his last appearance in the World Championship.

He did have some success at the other major PDC tournaments. In 1998 he beat Ronnie Baxter in the final of the World Matchplay, helped along the way by his now famous 125 checkout (Treble 15, Double 20, Double 20); he then successfully defended the title in 1999 with a victory over Peter Manley. He and Phil Taylor remained the only players to retain a major PDC title until Raymond van Barneveld retained his UK Open title in 2007. Harrington also reached the final of the first World Grand Prix event in 1998 losing to Taylor. Along with Richie Burnett he also reached the final of the PDC World Pairs tournament in 1997, losing in the final to the pairing of van Barneveld and Roland Scholten.

Recent years

After his loss of form, Harrington never officially announced a retirement from the game. He still attempted to qualify for the major UK tournaments until the 2007 World Championship - where he lost in the first qualifying round. He is unranked in the official Order of Merit. Harrington retired from professional darts in 2007.

Harrington became a director of the PDC and now also regularly acts in the capacity of a commentator and analyst on Sky Sports' live darts coverage. At one time, he was also the manager of former PDC world number one Colin Lloyd.

Personal life

Harrington is married to Dawn, and has 3 children Victoria, Curtis and Ryan. Harrington's son Ryan (born 1990) is a darts player on the PDC circuit.

World Championship results

BDO

• 1992: Quarter Finals (lost to Mike Gregory 3-4)
• 1993: 1st Round (lost to Wayne Weening 0-3)

PDC

• 1994: Quarter Finals (lost to Peter Evison 1-4)
• 1995: Runner Up (lost to Phil Taylor 2-6)
• 1996: Last 24 Group (beat Nigel Justice 3-0, lost to Larry Butler 2-3)
• 1997: Quarter Finals (lost to Dennis Priestley 2-5)
• 1998: Semi Finals (lost to Phil Taylor 2-5), (beat Keith Deller for third place 4-1)
• 1999: 2nd Round (lost to Shayne Burgess 1-3)
• 2000: 1st Round (lost to John Lowe 2-3)
• 2001: Semi Finals (lost to John Part 5-6)
• 2002: 2nd Round (lost to Dennis Priestley 3-6)
• 2003: 2nd Round (lost to Alan Warriner-Little 2-4)

Career finals

BDO major finals: 1 (1 title)

Outcome	No.	Year	Championship	Opponent in the final	Score
Winner	1.	1991	Winmau World Masters	Phil Taylor	3–1 (s)

PDC premier event finals: 4 (2 titles, 2 runners-up)

Legend

World Championship (0–1)

World Matchplay (2–0)

World Grand Prix (0–1)

Outcome	No.	Year	Championship	Opponent in the final	Score
Runner-up	1.	1995	World Darts Championship	Phil Taylor	2–6 (s)
Winner	1.	1998	World Matchplay	Ronnie Baxter	19–17 (l)
Runner-up	2.	1998	World Grand Prix	Phil Taylor	8–13 (l)
Winner	2.	1999	World Matchplay	Peter Manley	19–17 (l)

Performance timeline

Tournament	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
BDO World Championship	DNP		QF	L32	No longer a BDO Member
Winmau World Masters	L16	W	L32	DNP					L128	DNP
PDC World Championship	Not yet founded				QF	RU	L24G	QF	SF	L16	L32	SF	L16	L16	DNQ
World Matchplay	Not yet founded				SF	L32	QF	SF	W	W	QF	L32	L32	DNQ
World Grand Prix	Not yet founded								RU	SF	L16	L32	L16	DNQ
UK Open	Not held													L96	L128	L96

Performance Table Legend
DNP	Did not play at the event	DNQ	Did not qualify for the event	NYF	Not yet founded	L#	lost in the early rounds of the tournament (WR = Wildcard round, RR = Round robin)
QF	lost in the quarter-finals	SF	lost in the semi-finals	RU	lost in the final	W	won the tournament

External links

• Player profile on Rod Harrington from Dartsdatabase
• Player profile on Dartsmad