Colin Osborne (born 19 June 1975) is an English professional darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. In 2009, he won the Championship League and reached the final of the UK Open.
| Colin Osborne | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||
| Nickname | "Ozzy" | ||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 19 June 1975 Middlesbrough, England | ||||||||||||||||||
| Home town | Derby, England | ||||||||||||||||||
| Darts information | |||||||||||||||||||
| Playing darts since | 1989 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Darts | 22g Unicorn Contender Gold Colin Osborne | ||||||||||||||||||
| Laterality | Right-handed | ||||||||||||||||||
| Walk-on music | "Unbelievable" by EMF | ||||||||||||||||||
| Organisation (see split in darts) | |||||||||||||||||||
| PDC | 2005–2024 | ||||||||||||||||||
| PDC premier events – best performances | |||||||||||||||||||
| World Ch'ship | Quarter Final: 2007 | ||||||||||||||||||
| World Matchplay | Last 16: 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||
| World Grand Prix | Last 16: 2008, 2010, 2012 | ||||||||||||||||||
| UK Open | Runner Up: 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Grand Slam | Last 16: 2010 | ||||||||||||||||||
| European Ch'ship | Last 16: 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Ch'ship League | Winner (1): 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Desert Classic | Last 16: 2007 | ||||||||||||||||||
| US Open/WSoD | Last 16: 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||
| PC Finals | Semi Final: 2010 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Other tournament wins | |||||||||||||||||||
Players Championships
UK Open Regionals/Qualifiers
| |||||||||||||||||||
| Other achievements | |||||||||||||||||||
| 9 Dart Finish PDPA Players Ch'ship Hayling Island 2006 2007 Makes breakthrough into PDC top 10 | |||||||||||||||||||
Darts career
editOsborne has won two PDC Pro Tour events and he also managed to hit two perfect nine-dart finishes in 2005. The first one of these came in the Players Championship on the Isle of Wight and a second one followed at the non-televised qualifying rounds for the 2005 World Matchplay.
On his World Championship debut in 2007, Osborne reached the quarter-finals where he was beaten 5–4 by Andy Jenkins.
This great performance was followed by an even better one at the 2007 UK Open, where he beat Michael van Gerwen and Mervyn King as he reached the semi-final only to be beaten 11–10 in a thriller against Vincent van der Voort. He followed this success with victory against James Wade in Las Vegas, only to lose to Peter Manley in the second round.
Osborne suffered a surprising first round exit in the 2008 World Championship, losing 3–1 to Dutchman Erwin Extercatte. In the 2008 World Matchplay, he beat King in the first round, but then lost in the next round to Phil Taylor. Osborne was 10–0 down before finally winning a leg, eventually losing 13–5 with Taylor averaging 109.
In the 2009 PDC World Championship, Osborne beat South Africa's Charles Losper 3–0 in the first round, before losing 4–1 to van der Voort in the second round.
2009 was a breakthrough year for Osborne, as he reached his first major final in the 2009 UK Open. Having beaten Raymond van Barneveld, Jamie Caven and Kevin Painter in the earlier rounds, he lost 11–6 to Taylor in the final. He also won the 2009 Championship League Darts, defeating Taylor 6–4 in the final, but a disappointing year in the other majors was compounded with a first-round loss to Simon Whitlock in the 2010 World Championship, a match that was dubbed "The Battle of the Wizards" due to both players being nicknamed 'The Wizard'.
In 2010, Osborne reached the semi-finals of the Players Championship Finals before losing to King. At the Grand Slam of Darts, Osborne lost his opening group match to Robert Thornton before beating Whitlock and Dave Chisnall to qualify for the knockout stages. He lost 10–3 to Gary Anderson in the last 16. He then reached the third round of the 2011 World Championship, and was 3–2 up against van Barneveld before losing 4–3.
Nickname
editBetween 2005 and 2010, Osborne was nicknamed The Wizard, a reference to The Wizard of Oz. He has long been known on the circuit, most notably by commentator Sid Waddell as Ozzy, a reference to both The Wizard of Oz and to rock singer Ozzy Osbourne. Due to the latter, he used the song "Paranoid" by Ozzy's band Black Sabbath as his walk-on. In 2011, he officially changed his nickname to 'Ozzy', following the increasing prominence of Simon Whitlock, who is also nicknamed 'The Wizard'.[1]
Outside darts
editOsborne is a former representative of the English table tennis team.[2] He is also a former yo-yo champion and enjoys golf and snooker.
Osborne was born in Middlesbrough, but now lives in Derby with his wife Sarah.[3] The couple have two sons, Colin Jr. (born 2003) and Alfie (born 2006). For about 18 months, Colin and Sarah were the landlords of the Greyhound pub, Village Street.[4]
2020-now
editFrom March 2020 until 2023 he didn't compete in any darts event. In 2023, he took part in the MODUS Super Series.
World Championship performances
editPDC
edit- 2007: Quarter-Finals (lost to Andy Jenkins 4–5)
- 2008: 1st Round (lost to Erwin Extercatte 1–3)
- 2009: 2nd Round (lost to Vincent van der Voort 1–4)
- 2010: 1st Round (lost to Simon Whitlock 1–3)
- 2011: 3rd Round (lost to Raymond van Barneveld 3–4)
- 2012: 1st Round (lost to Michael van Gerwen 1–3)
- 2013: 2nd Round (lost to Simon Whitlock 0–4)
- 2014: 1st Round (lost to Brendan Dolan 0–3)
PDC major finals: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)
edit| Legend |
|---|
| UK Open (0–1) |
| Championship League Darts (1–0) |
| Outcome | No. | Year | Championship | Opponent in the final | Score[N 1] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runner-up | 1. | 2009 | UK Open |  Phil Taylor
|
6–11 (l) |
| Winner | 1. | 2009 | Championship League Darts | Phil Taylor
|
6–4 (l) |
- ^ (l) = score in legs, (s) = score in sets.
Performance timeline
edit| Tournament | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PDC World Championship | DNQ | QF | 1R | 2R | 1R | 3R | 1R | 2R | 1R | ||
| UK Open | QF | 3R | SF | 4R | F | 4R | 5R | 4R | 2R | DNQ | |
| World Matchplay | 1R | DNQ | 1R | 2R | 1R | 1R | 1R | 1R | DNQ | ||
| World Grand Prix | DNQ | 1R | 2R | 1R | 2R | DNQ | 2R | DNQ | |||
| European Championship | Not held | 1R | 2R | 1R | Did not qualify | ||||||
| Grand Slam of Darts | Not held | DNQ | RR | 2R | Did not qualify | ||||||
| Players Championship Finals | Not held | 1R | SF | 2R | 1R | 1R | DNQ | ||||
| Las Vegas Desert Classic | DNQ | 2R | DNQ | 1R | Not held | ||||||
| Championship League Darts | Not held | RR | W | RR | RR | RR | RR | NH | |||
| US Open/WSoD | NH | DNQ | 1R | 5R | Not held | ||||||
| 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 | ||
References
edit- ^ Osborne Adopts New Nickname Archived 16 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine PDC.tv
- ^ "Colin Osbourne". Global Darts. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
- ^ Steel, Adam (4 December 2015). "World Darts Championship frustration for Middlesbrough's Colin Osborne". Teesside Live. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
- ^ [World Darts Championship frustration for Middlesbrough's Colin Osborne "Darts: Colin's aiming for top"]. Teesside Live. 14 May 2013. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
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External links
edit- Colin Osborne profile on winmau.com (archived)
- Colins Management Team
- Official website
- Player profile for Colin Osborne from Dartsdatabase