Ritchie Davies
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Ritchie Davies (born November 27, 1971) is a former Welsh professional darts player from Aberdare. Davies is most well-known for his run at the 2003 BDO World Darts Championship, where he reached the final.
He had made his World Championship debut in 1997 but managed to win only one match (a 3-0 win over Les Wallace in 2000) in his first six visits to the Lakeside. He then produced his run to the final in 2003.
In doing so, he beat Albertino Essers, former champion John 'Boy' Walton, and defending champion Tony David for the loss of just one set, before defeating Gary Anderson 5-2 in the semi-finals. Davies then gave Raymond van Barneveld a scare, as he recovered from 4-0 down to trail by just 4-3 before Barneveld found enough to beat him 6-3 and win his third title.
Davies made the quarter-finals the following year, with renewed confidence, but was beaten in the quarter-finals this time around by Mervyn King. He hasn't qualified to play at the World Championships since.
In other BDO tournaments, he was the winner of the Swedish Open in 1997, British Classic in 2000 and the Scottish Open in 2002. He also reached some Open finals including the Scottish Open in 1997, the 1997 British Open, 1998 England Open and 2003 Welsh Open.
He hasn't featured in the final stages of BDO tournaments since reaching the the quarter-finals of the British Classic in August 2004.
