Ronnie Baxter

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ronnie Baxter
Personal information
Nickname	The Rocket
Date of birth	May 02, 1961 (age 45)
Place of birth	Blackpool,
Home town	Swindon,
Darts information
Playing darts since	1980s
Darts	22g Nickel Tungsten
Organisation
BDO	1991 to 2002
PDC	since 2002
Current World Ranking	13
BDO Grand Slam Events - Best Performances
World Ch'ship	Runner-up 1999, 2000
World Masters	Runner-up 1997
World Darts Trophy	SF 2006
Int. Darts League	Group Stage 2006
PDC Televised Events - Best Performances
World Ch'ship	QF 2002
World Matchplay	Runner-up 1998
World Grand Prix	SF 2004
UK Open	Last 16, 2004, 2006
Desert Classic	Runner-up 2002
Premier League	5th, 2006
Other Tournament Wins
Tournament	Years
Welsh Open German Open Denmark Open Swiss Open Finnish Open UK Open Regional Players Ch'ship	1991, 1993 1995 1996 1997 1998 2003 2005

Ronnie Baxter (born May 2, 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. Originally from Church in Lancashire, he currently resides in Swindon, Wiltshire.

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 the 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 Richie 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. After this appearance he switched to join the other darts organisation, the Professional Darts Corporation (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 the 2002 Las Vegas Desert Classic and also the final of 1998 PDC World Matchplay (whilst still a BDO player). 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.