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Tony O'Shea (born 9 May 1961)[2] is an English professional darts player. His squat figure has resulted in the nickname "Silverback". O'Shea has reached the finals of seven British Darts Organisation (BDO) major darts tournaments, but to date has never won one. He also acted as a regular commentator for televised BDO coverage.
Darts career
BDO
In 2002, O'Shea made his debut at the BDO World Championship, narrowly losing to former Masters champion Colin Monk 3–2. O'Shea returned the following year and beat former champion Ted Hankey 3–2 in the first round, before once again being beaten by Monk 3–2 – this time in the deciding leg of the deciding set. Two years thereafter he reached the semi-finals after a winning streak defeating Gary Anderson, Gary Robson and Ted Hankey before he eventually went out against Mervyn King 5–1. Later that year he had his best chance to date of winning a major title, as he led King 5–3 in the final of the Winmau World Masters before King recovered to win 6–5.
O'Shea managed to achieve a televised nine-dart finish against Adrian Lewis during the International Darts League on 9 May 2007 which made the tournament the first in darts history to witness two perfect legs. The occasion was made even sweeter as he was celebrating his 46th birthday.
O'Shea won the 2008 Welsh Masters, only his second tournament victory. In the 2009 BDO World Championship, O'Shea defeated Anderson in the quarter-finals, his best friend Darryl Fitton in the semi-final, but was once again second-best in a major final as he lost to Hankey 7–6 in what Tony Green described as the best final since 1992.
O'Shea entered the 2009 Winmau World Masters as the number one seed but despite 3–0 wins over Dave Prins and eighth seed Joey ten Berge, he lost in the semi-finals to defending champion Martin Adams who successfully retained his title. O'Shea then won the WDF World Cup men's singles title with victory over ten Berge in the final, in what was arguably his most significant win to date.
O'Shea entered the 2010 BDO World Championship as the number one seed. He had a tough first round against World Masters runner up Robbie Green but came through it 3–2. He then saw off Stephen Bunting 4–0 to reach his fourth Quarter-final. He managed a 5–1 victory over Robert Wagner in the quarter finals and went on to meet Dave Chisnall in the semi-final who had beaten Fitton in the first round, former Masters champion Tony West in the second round, and defending champion Hankey in the quarter-final. O'Shea, despite taking the first two sets, was beaten 6–3 by Chisnall and saw his World Championship dream end for another year. Martin Adams went on to defeat Chisnall in the final.
In contrast in 2010 where he was world number one, O'Shea came into the 2011 BDO World Championship as the number eight seed and suffered a shock first round loss to Ross Smith.
O'Shea was seeded at the 2012 BDO World Championship, O'Shea put his successful run in the tournament down to his work with professional sports mind coach and hypnotherapist Stephen McKibben from Belfast. He beat Steve West in the first round, hitting a 140 checkout and 142 checkout in consecutive legs at the end of the match, before defeating Ross Montgomery in the second round. He then beat defending champion Martin Adams 5–2 in the quarter-finals, hitting a 170 checkout in the fourth set and thanked mind coach Stephen McKibben for enabling him to at last beat Martin Adams in a major tournament. O'Shea followed this up with a 6–5 victory over Dutch débutant Wesley Harms to reach his second World Championship final, where he was defeated by another Dutch débutant, Christian Kist, 7–5.
[3]
Tony O'Shea reached his third World Championship final in 2013 after a high quality run. He struggled badly in the final, losing to Scott Waites 7–1 with an average of 81.90. O'Shea became the first man to lose his first three BDO World Championship finals, and only the second player to lose his first three world finals in either the BDO or PDC after Peter Manley.
In 2018, he was not at the World Championships for the first time in his career.
