Rod Harrington

Rod Harrington
Personal information
Nickname	The Prince of Style
Born	(1957-12-30) 30 December 1957 Boreham, Essex, England
Home town	Chelmsford, 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)
WDF major events – best performances
World Ch'ship	Quarter Final: 1992
World Masters	Winner (1) 1991
PDC premier events – best performances
World Ch'ship	Runner Up: 1995
World Matchplay	Winner (2) 1998, 1999
World Grand Prix	Runner Up: 1998
UK Open	Last 96: 2003, 2005
Other tournament wins
Austrian Open 1992 Belgium Open 1991, 1992 British Gold Cup 1990 Calgary Golden Harvest 1998 Cleveland Darts Extravaganza 1993 Denmark Open 1991, 1992, 1998 Double Diamond Masters 1987 French Open 1991, 1993 Golden Harvest North American Cup 1997, 1998, 1999 Jersey Festival Of Darts 1992 Malta Open 1991 Swedish Open 1991 Swiss Open 1998 Windy City Open 1992
Other achievements
PDC World Number 1 (Apr 1995 to Aug 1996), (Aug 1998 to Aug 2000)
Updated on 27 December 2018.

Rodney Harrington (born 30 December 1957) is an English former professional darts player and commentator. He used the nickname "The Prince of Style" for his matches, often wearing a suit and waistcoat 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. At the PDC Awards Dinner held in January 2019, Harrington was inducted into the PDC Hall of Fame.

Darts career

BDO 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.

Final years

After three knee operations in the first half of 2001, Harrington's form dropped dramatically, although he 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, and has never thrown another dart in any competition since.

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 three children: Victoria, Curtis, and Ryan. His 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 2–3)

PDC

• 1994: Quarter-finals (lost to Peter Evison 1–4)
• 1995: Runner-up (lost to Phil Taylor 2–6)
• 1996: Group stage (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	3–2 (s)

PDC major 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 (s)
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	1R	No longer a BDO Member
Winmau World Masters	4R	W	3R	DNP					1R	DNP
PDC World Championship	Not yet founded				QF	F	RR	QF	SF	2R	1R	SF	2R	2R	DNQ
World Matchplay	Not held				SF	1R	QF	SF	W	W	QF	1R	1R	DNQ
World Grand Prix	Not held								F	SF	2R	1R	2R	DNQ
UK Open	Not held													2R	1R	3R

Performance Table Legend
W	Won the tournament	F	Finalist	SF	Semifinalist	QF	Quarterfinalist	#R RR Prel.	Lost in # round Round-robin Preliminary round	DQ	Disqualified
DNQ	Did not qualify	DNP	Did not participate	WD	Withdrew	NH	Tournament not held			NYF	Not yet founded

External links

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