Alan Tabern
"The Saint" Alan Tabern (born 29 September 1966 in St. Helens, Lancashire) is an English darts player in the Professional Darts Corporation. He is one of the most successful left hand dart players.
| Alan Tabern | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
| Nickname | The Saint | ||||||||||||||
| Born | 29 September 1966 St. Helens, Lancashire, England | ||||||||||||||
| Home town | St. Helens, Merseyside England | ||||||||||||||
| Darts information | |||||||||||||||
| Playing darts since | 1985 | ||||||||||||||
| Darts | Target Darts | ||||||||||||||
| Laterality | Left-handed | ||||||||||||||
| Walk-on music | "The Saints Are Coming" by U2 and Green Day | ||||||||||||||
| Organisation (see split in darts) | |||||||||||||||
| BDO | 2004 | ||||||||||||||
| PDC | 2005– | ||||||||||||||
| Current world ranking | 96 | ||||||||||||||
| BDO majors – best performances | |||||||||||||||
| Int. Darts League | Preliminary round: 2007 | ||||||||||||||
| PDC premier events – best performances | |||||||||||||||
| World Ch'ship | Quarter-final: 2007 | ||||||||||||||
| World Matchplay | Quarter-final: 2008 | ||||||||||||||
| World Grand Prix | Last 16: 2007. 2011 | ||||||||||||||
| Grand Slam | Group Stages: 2008 | ||||||||||||||
| Ch'ship League | Winners group, Semi-finals: 2008 | ||||||||||||||
| Desert Classic | Quarter-final: 2008 | ||||||||||||||
| European Ch'ship | Quarter-final: 2008 | ||||||||||||||
| UK Open | Semi-final: 2006 | ||||||||||||||
| US Open/WSoD | Semi-final: 2009 | ||||||||||||||
| Players Ch'ship Finals | Last 16: 2009 | ||||||||||||||
| Other tournament wins | |||||||||||||||
Players Championships
UK Open Regionals/Qualifiers
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Darts career
A left-hander, he made his PDC World Championship debut in 2005 with a surprising win over Alex Roy. He was beaten in the second round by Mark Dudbridge. Tabern reached the quarter finals of the 2007 PDC World Darts Championship, where he was beaten 0–5 by eventual winner Raymond van Barneveld. In the 2008 World Championship, he defeated Denmark's Per Laursen and Andy Jenkins before losing 3–4 in the third round to Phil Taylor, having led 3–2. Tabern caused a major shock in the 2008 Las Vegas Desert Classic by beating No.2 Seed and reigning champion van Barneveld 8–4 in the second round. In the 2008 World Matchplay Tabern reached the quarter-finals, knocking out current World Champion John Part before losing to Dennis Priestley.
Following this great run of form Alan attracted a new sponsor in Target Darts and has just spent two months developing his own set of darts that he used for the very first time at the 2008 World Matchplay. In August 2008, Tabern claimed his second PDC Pro Tour victory in the Peach Tree Open in Atlanta by defeating Andy Hamilton 3–1 in the final and the next month he claimed another Players Championship win in Wales. This put him in the top 10 in the PDC Order of Merit for the first time in his career. Tabern played in the 2008 Grand Slam of Darts, where he was involved in the first televised nine-dart shootout after he and Hamilton had finished level on points and leg difference in their group. Tabern lost 265–169 in it, with only one of his 9 darts hitting treble 20, with three others in either five or one beds, contrasting with Hamilton's four treble 20s from six darts.
Tabern suffered a second round exit in the 2009 PDC World Championship, losing to Co Stompé. The following year, Tabern suffered another second round defeat, this time losing 3–4 to Mark Dudbridge having missed six darts to win. Tabern once again missed six match darts in the second round of the 2011 tournament against Mark Walsh.
On the second day of 2018 Q school in Wigan he managed to regain his tour card for 2018 - 2019 after he beat Steven Kirkby 5–1 in the final.
World Championship results
PDC
- 2006: 2nd round (lost to Mark Dudbridge 0–4)
- 2007: Quarter-final (lost to Raymond van Barneveld 0–5)
- 2008: 3rd round (lost to Phil Taylor 3–4)
- 2009: 2nd round (lost to Co Stompé 1–4)
- 2010: 2nd round (lost to Mark Dudbridge 3–4)
- 2011: 2nd round (lost to Mark Walsh 3–4)
- 2012: 2nd round (lost to Paul Nicholson 0–4)
- 2019: 2nd round (lost to Michael van Gerwen 1–3)
Performance timeline
| Tournament | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PDC World Championship | DNQ | 2R | QF | 3R | 2R | 2R | 2R | 2R | Did not qualify | 2R | |||||
| UK Open | 2R | SF | 4R | QF | QF | 5R | 3R | 3R | DNQ | Prel. | 2R | 1R | 5R | DNQ | 3R |
| World Matchplay | DNQ | 1R | 1R | QF | 2R | 2R | 1R | Did not qualify | |||||||
| World Grand Prix | DNQ | 2R | 1R | 1R | 1R | 2R | Did not qualify | ||||||||
| European Championship | Not held | QF | DNQ | 1R | 1R | Did not qualify | |||||||||
| Grand Slam of Darts | Not held | DNQ | RR | Did not qualify | |||||||||||
| Players Championship Finals | Not held | 2R | 1R | 1R | Did not qualify | 1R | |||||||||
| Championship League Darts | Not held | SF | RR | RR | RR | DNQ | Not held | ||||||||
| Las Vegas Desert Classic | DNQ | 2R | QF | 1R | Not held | ||||||||||
| Performance Table Legend | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DNP | Did not play at the event | DNQ | Did not qualify for the event | NYF | Not yet founded | #R | 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 | F | lost in the final | W | won the tournament |