Magnus Caris

Magnus Caris
Personal information
NicknamePoker Face
Born (1968-11-15) 15 November 1968 (age 56)
Taby, Stockholm, Sweden
Home townNacka, Stockholm, Sweden
Darts information
Playing darts since1983
Darts26 Gram Own Brand
LateralityRight-handed
Walk-on music"Poker Face" by Lady Gaga
Organisation (see split in darts)
BDO1987–2009
PDC2009–2019
WDF major events – best performances
World Ch'shipSemi-final: 1994
World MastersSemi-final: 1992
PDC premier events – best performances
World Ch'shipLast 64: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2017
UK OpenLast 64: 2016
Grand SlamGroup Stage: 2011
European Ch'shipLast 32: 2011, 2012, 2015
Other tournament wins
Benidorm Open 2012
PDC European Tour Nordic and Baltic Qualifier 2017, 2018
PDC World Sweden Qualifying Event 2009, 2010
SDC European Championship Qualifier 2015
Sweden National Championships 2009, 2010

SDC Pro Tour

SDC Denmark 2013
SDC Russia 2015
SDC Sweden 2012, 2013, 2016

Magnus Caris (born 15 November 1968) is a Swedish former professional darts player who competed in British Darts Organisation (BDO) and Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events.

BDO career

Caris made seven BDO World Darts Championship appearances, his first coming in 1988, losing in the first round to Rick Ney of the United States. In 1990, he reached the quarter-finals, beating Antero Rantala and Brian Cairns before losing to Eric Bristow.

He is famous for his semi final match in the 1994 BDO World Darts Championship against crowd favourite Bobby George. He defeated Wayne Weening, Leo Laurens and Martin Adams to set up a match with George who was struggling with a very bad back following his quarter final win over Kevin Kenny. Caris lost the first 2 sets against George, but then won the next 4 sets and went 2 legs up in the seventh set. In the third leg of the seventh set, Caris had one dart at double 18 to win the match with a 141 checkout. Following this, George won 9 legs in a row and prevailed 5–4 in sets.[1]

Caris also played in the Winmau World Masters five times, with his best performance coming in 1992, reaching the semi-finals with wins over John Lowe, Bristow and Martin Adams before losing to Mike Gregory. Caris returned to televised darts at the 2009 World Masters, losing to defending champion Martin Adams in the last 16.

PDC career

At the end of 2009, Caris competed in the 2010 PDC World Championship. He whitewashed Spain's Francisco Ruiz in the preliminary round before losing to Colin Lloyd in the first round.

In December 2010, Caris competed for Sweden in the inaugural PDC World Cup of Darts alongside Par Riihonen. Sweden beat Slovenia by 6 legs to 2 in the first round, but were defeated 6–4 by United States in the second round.

At the end of 2010, Caris qualified again for the 2011 PDC World Championship. He beat Austria's Dietmar Burger in the preliminary round 4–3, surviving several match darts against him, before losing to Mervyn King in the first round.

At the start of 2011, Caris competed in the PDC qualifying school and earned his 2011 PDC tour card by getting the semi-final on the second day of qualifying.[2]

Caris qualified for the 2011 UK Open and beat Kevin McDine in the first round. In the second round he was drawn against Peter Hudson and took a 3–0 lead before Hudson hit back to force a deciding leg, which Hudson won with a ten-darter. Caris also missed eight match darts including a bullseye for a 164 finish in the sixth leg.

Caris qualified for the 2011 Grand Slam of Darts after reaching the final of the Wildcard qualifier. He finished 3rd in his group with one victory and two defeats.

At the 2012 World Championship he let a 2–0 lead slip against Steve Beaton in the first round. Caris had three darts to wrap up a straight sets victory, but seemingly let the boisterous crowd get to him, and eventually lost the match, 2–3.[3] He represented Sweden with Dennis Nilsson once again in the 2012 PDC World Cup of Darts and together they were beaten 1–3 by Belgium in the second round, having defeated Japan in round 1.[4] In June, Caris earned a place in the European Tour Event 2 in Berlin by defeating Roger Palmen and Christian Gödl in the European Qualifier.[5] In the first round he lost to Terry Jenkins 3–6.[6] He also qualified for the third European Tour Event with a win over Mareno Michels,[7] but was then beaten by James Wade 3–6 in the first round in Düsseldorf.[8] At the European Championship, Caris lost in the first round to Phil Taylor 3–6 with an average of 90.

Caris finished 2012 sixth on the European Order of Merit which qualified him for the 2013 World Championship, as he took the second of four spots that were available for the highest non-qualified players.[9][10] He played Robert Thornton in the first round and lost 0–3 in sets, winning just a single leg during the match.[11] He was ranked world number 44 after the tournament.[12] Caris played in his third World Cup of Darts and second with Par Riihonen in February 2013, but they finished bottom of Group C, losing to Canada 4–5 and Scotland 2–5.[13]

Caris produced a very good run in the fourth UK Open Qualifier of the year by reaching the quarter-finals, beating Simon Whitlock and Andy Smith, before losing to Jamie Caven.[14] He lost 5–1 to Kirk Shepherd in the second round of the UK Open itself.[15] He won two events on the Scandinavian Pro Tour during the year to finish third on their Order of Merit.[16][17][18]

In March 2014, Caris reached the semi-finals of the fourth Players Championship, only the second time he has done so in his PDC career. He beat Nigel Heydon, Peter Hudson, Justin Pipe, Adam Hunt and Stephen Bunting, before losing 6–4 to Ian White.[19] In the World Cup of Darts, Caris and his playing partner Peter Sajwani lost both their singles games in the second round against Scotland's Peter Wright and Robert Thornton to exit the tournament.[20] Caris lost in the final of the European Championship Qualifier 6–4 to Robert Wagner.[21]

Caris claimed a new two-year PDC Tour Card in January 2015 by coming through the fourth day of Q School.[22] He began the year brightly by reaching the quarter-finals of the first Players Championship event, losing 6–5 to James Wade.[23] Caris lost in two finals on the Scandinavian Pro Tour, but won the first Russian event with a 6–3 victory over Per Laursen.[24][25] He also took the SDC qualifier for the European Championship, where he was eliminated 6–2 by Simon Whitlock in the opening round.[26]

Caris lost in the final of two Scandinavian Tour events in the early part of 2016.[27] He reached the third round of the UK Open for the first time and lost 9–4 to John Henderson.[28] Caris and Daniel Larsson were defeated 5–2 by Denmark in the first round of the World Cup. He won the final Scandinavian Tour event of the year by seeing off Cor Dekker 6–4.[29] In the first round of the 2017 World Championship, Caris missed one set dart to level his first round match with Adrian Lewis at 1–1 and was beaten 3–0.[30]

At the 2017 Gibraltar Darts Trophy, Caris overcame Dyson Parody 6–1, Jelle Klaasen 6–3 and Benito van de Pas 6–2 to reach his first European Tour quarter-final and he was beaten 6–3 by Mensur Suljović.[31]

He announced his intention to retire from professional darts after the 2019 World Cup of Darts.

On 08/06/19 he played his final match as a professional darts player at the 2019 World Cup of Darts where he lost his match 4–0 to Gary Anderson. His partner then went on to lose meaning his team lost 2–0 to Team Scotland, Peter Wright and Gary Anderson. Following this match he officially retired from darts.

World Championship results

BDO

PDC

Performance timeline

Tournament 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
BDO World Championship DNQ 1R 2R QF 1R 1R DNQ SF 1R DNP DNQ DNP DNQ No longer a BDO Member
Winmau World Masters 1R 3R 4R QF 3R 1R SF 1R DNP 1R DNP 1R DNP 2R 6R No longer a BDO Member
News of the World DNP QF DNP Not held DNP Not held
PDC World Championship NYF Non-PDC 1R 1R 1R 1R DNQ 1R
UK Open Not held DNP 2R DNQ 2R DNQ 3R DNP
Grand Slam of Darts Not held DNP RR DNP
European Championship Not held DNP 1R 1R DNQ 1R DNQ
Performance Table Legend
DNP Did not play at the event DNQ Did not qualify for the event NYF Not yet founded #R lost in the early rounds of the tournament
(WR = Wildcard round, RR = Round robin)
QF lost in the quarter-finals SF lost in the semi-finals F lost in the final W won the tournament

References

  1. ^ Bobbygeorge.com
  2. ^ "pdc.tv". Archived from the original on 16 September 2012. Retrieved 15 January 2011.
  3. ^ "Beaton not beaten just yet". Sky Sports. Retrieved 18 December 2011.
  4. ^ "Cash Converters World Cup Round Two Doubles Round-Up". PDC. 4 February 2012. Archived from the original on 7 February 2012. Retrieved 4 February 2012.
  5. ^ "European Stars Seal Berlin Places". PDC. Archived from the original on 5 June 2012. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
  6. ^ "German Darts Champs Day One". PDC. Archived from the original on 25 June 2012. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
  7. ^ "European Tour 3 Qualifiers". PDC. Archived from the original on 26 June 2012. Retrieved 24 June 2012.
  8. ^ "European Darts Open Day One". PDC. Archived from the original on 9 July 2012. Retrieved 6 July 2012.
  9. ^ "European Order of Merit". PDC. Archived from the original on 5 December 2012. Retrieved 4 December 2012.
  10. ^ "2013 PDC World Championship Qualifiers". Darts Database. Retrieved 4 December 2012.
  11. ^ "Ladbrokes WDC Day One". PDC. Retrieved 14 December 2012.
  12. ^ "Order of Merit on 1 January 2013". PDC. Archived from the original on 6 January 2013. Retrieved 13 January 2013.
  13. ^ "Betfair World Cup of Darts - Saturday Afternoon". PDC. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
  14. ^ "Thorn Strikes For Qualifier Four Win". PDC. Archived from the original on 30 October 2013. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
  15. ^ "Speedy Services UK Open - Thursday". PDC. Retrieved 8 June 2013.
  16. ^ "Pro Tour 4 – Caris takes Sunday's Title". SDC. Archived from the original on 22 July 2013. Retrieved 28 October 2013.
  17. ^ "SDC PT 7 – Results". SDC. Archived from the original on 6 October 2013. Retrieved 28 October 2013.
  18. ^ "SDC Order of Merit". SDC. Retrieved 28 October 2013.
  19. ^ "Imperious Taylor's Crawley Triumph". PDC. Archived from the original on 24 March 2014. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
  20. ^ "bwin World Cup of Darts Second Round". PDC. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
  21. ^ "2014 SDC European Championship Qualifier Results". Darts Database. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  22. ^ "PDC Qualifying School Day Four". PDC. Retrieved 29 November 2015.
  23. ^ "Super Scot Anderson Takes Barnsley Title". PDC. Retrieved 28 November 2015.
  24. ^ "Magnus Caris 2015". Darts Database. Archived from the original on 29 November 2015. Retrieved 28 November 2015.
  25. ^ "2015 SDC Russia Results". Darts Database. Retrieved 28 November 2015.
  26. ^ "Unibet European Championship Day One". PDC. Retrieved 28 November 2015.
  27. ^ "Magnus Caris 2016". Darts Database. Archived from the original on 10 November 2016. Retrieved 10 November 2016.
  28. ^ "2016 Coral UK Open Day One". PDC. Retrieved 10 November 2016.
  29. ^ "2016 SDC Sweden Results". Darts Database. Retrieved 11 November 2016.
  30. ^ "William Hill World Championship Day Five". PDC. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  31. ^ "Four-Some Smith's Gibraltar Joy". PDC. Archived from the original on 17 May 2017. Retrieved 14 May 2017.