Biography

Ronnie Baxter (born Feb 5, 1961 in Blackpool, Lancashire) is an English darts player. He uses the nickname The Rocket for his matches. Baxter is known for his fast, robotic throwing action. He currently resides in his hometown Blackpool.

Playing Career

BDO

Baxter played on the North American circuit during the 1980s and when he participated in the British Darts Organisation he had a consistent record for reaching the final stages of their Open events. As well as winning the Welsh Open twice, German Open, Denmark, Swiss and Finnish Opens he also reached the final of the Opens in England, Wales, Finland, Denmark (twice) and the semi-finals of the Scottish Open four times, British Open three times, England Open twice and the British Classic in 2001.

He made his World Championship debut in 1991 - before the split in the game and lost in the second round to Jocky Wilson. A first round defeat in 1992 to Bob Anderson was followed by failure to qualify for the 1993 event. When the top players left the BDO to form the WDC after the 1993 World Championship, Baxter had risen in the rankings to be seeded number two for the 1994 World Championship, but he was beaten in the first round - this time by eventual champion John Part.

He missed out on the 1995 Championship, but then reached the quarter-finals for the first time in 1996 when he was beaten by Richie Burnett. Baxter was seeded seventh for the 1997 World Championship but lost in the second round to Mervyn King. In 1998 he had again risen in the rankings to be seeded number two - but just as in 1994 he failed to live up his ranking and went out in the first round to Scotland's Peter Johnstone.

In 1999, he finally showed some of the form that saw him ranked second in the world by reaching the World Final for the first time. He beat Burnett, Kevin Painter, Roland Scholten and Andy Fordham before losing 5-6 in the final to Raymond van Barneveld. Still ranked second in the world, he went back to the final in 2000 but lost 0-6 to Ted Hankey in just 46 minutes - the quickest final in the tournament's history.

His last appearance at the Lakeside Country Club came in 2001, he beat Martin Adams in the second round but lost to Wayne Mardle in the quarter-final.

PDC

He hasn't produced the form in the PDC that he showed in the BDO - his best run at the PDC World Championship came on his debut in 2002 when he reached the quarter-finals. In 2006 and 2007, Baxter has been surprisingly beaten in the first round.

He did reach the final of 2002 Las Vegas Desert Classic and also the final of 1998 PDC World Matchplay (whilst still a BDO player) against Rod Harrington. Qualifying for the Premier League is seen as a feat in itself - and Baxter's high world ranking saw him qualify for the 2006 tournament, where he finished fifth. He also won a regional final of the UK Open and a PDPA Players Championship but despite a career which has shown great potential - he has yet to clinch a major televised tournament success and has slipped outside the top ten in the world rankings at the start of 2007. However, he enjoyed something of a resurgence at the World Matchplay, defeating Anderson and Dutch wonderkid Michael van Gerwen before losing narrowly in the quarter finals to Terry Jenkins.

In 2008 Las Vegas Desert Classic Baxter threw his forth 9 darter in a qualifying round or tournament. Two weeks earlier to this he made his third one in Australia (all of which have not been in England), all were not televised. Furthermore in 2005/06 Baxter failed to qualify for the Desert Classic.

In the 2009 PDC World Darts Championship, Baxter defeated Finland's Marko Kantele in the first round. He then beat Denis Ovens in the second round. However, in possibly the best match of the tournament, he lost to world number two van Barneveld in a sudden death leg in the 7th and final set. Baxter missed two darts at double 16 in that leg after he hit the the bull to throw first and have an early advantage, although van Barneveld finished comfortably on double top. Recent performances on the PDC Pro Tour have seen Ronnie return to the world's top ten.

After winning the warm-up Players Tournament in Vegas, Baxter was defeated in the first round of the 2009 Las Vegas Desert Classic by Jelle Klaasen (6-2) in July 2009.

In July 2009 Baxter arrived in Blackpool for the World Matchplay at the ever impressive Winter Gardens. As a firm favourite and a local he gained valuable support from the noisy and passionate fans who helped him narrowly defeat Jelle Klaasen and Alan Tabern in the first 2 rounds. Then in the 1/4 finals Baxter took on world number 2 James Wade who himself has an exceptional record at Blackpool. However Wade was blown away by the majestic Baxter who eventually won 16-10. Chants of Super Ronnie Baxter echoed around the Winter Gardens as Baxter made it into the semi finals. However the next day he gallantly was defeated 17-12 by Terry Jenkins.

October's World Grand Prix in Dublin saw Baxter's poor run in the competition continue as he was defeated by Steve Beaton in Round 1.

His form however picked up just in time, and a good run at the 2010 Ladbrokes.com World Championship where he saw off Japanease Haruki Muramatsu, a game which set up a mouth watering tie against Scottish star Gary Anderson. Ronnie won the game in superb style 4-0. Round 3 saw Baxter against Colin Lloyd, Ronnie turned on the form again, progressing by 4 sets to 1.

His good run ran out in the Quarter-Final against Raymond van Barneveld, Baxter going down 5-2. However the quarter-Final was enough to put Ronnie up to 6th in the World Rankings, and an automatic qualification into the 2010 Whyte & Mackay Premier League.

Many predicted Baxter to struggle during the 2010 Premier League, however Ronnie was unlucky missing out on the top four which would of earned him a play-off place after a 8-2 defeat against Raymond van Barneveld left him in fifth place, level on points with fourth placed Colin Lloyd.

During 2010, Ronnie also won the Barnsley leg of The Players Championship beating Denis Ovens 6-5 in the final, after defeating Simon Whitlock and Adrian Lewis en route. Also during 2010, Ronnie reached round 5 of The UK Open being defeated 9-7 by Andy Hamilton, and then a dissapointing World Matchplay in Blackpool departing in round 2 at the hands of Wayne Jones 13-9.

2010 saw Ronnie qualify for the 2010 Grand Slam Of Darts, where he finished top of his first round group beating Steve Beaton and Arron Monk before losing 10-1 to Phil Taylor in round 2.

In the 2011 World Championships Ronnie was handed a tricky first round match against Roland Scholten, however Ronnie passed the test beating the Dutchman 3-0 to set up a round 2 match against Mark Webster. In a frustrating match, Ronnie had the chance to take 3 sets, but narrowly missed the vital double leaving the door open for Webster to steal, and the Welshman eventually went through 4-0.

2011 got off to a good start with Ronnie winning the Halle Players Championship at the end of January beating Richie Burnett, Alan Tabern and Mark Walsh before beating Antonio Alcinas 6-4 in the final.