Keith Deller

Keith Deller MBE
Deller in 2011
Personal information
Full name	Keith Noel Deller
Nickname	"The Fella" "Milky Bar Kid" "The Delboy"
Born	(1959-12-24) 24 December 1959 Ipswich, England
Home town	Icklingham, England
Darts information
Playing darts since	1972
Darts	23 Gram Loxley Keith Deller
Laterality	Right-handed
Walk-on music	"Things Can Only Get Better" by D Ream
Organisation (see split in darts)
BDO	1983–1993
PDC	1993–2007 (founding member)
WDF major events – best performances
World Ch'ship	Winner (1) 1983
World Masters	Runner-up: 1984
PDC premier events – best performances
World Ch'ship	Semi-final: 1998
World Matchplay	Semi-final: 1998
World Grand Prix	Quarter-final: 1999
UK Open	Last 32: 2006
WSDT major events – best performances
World Ch'ship	Last 16: 2022, 2023
World Matchplay	Last 20: 2022
World Masters	Quarter-final: 2022
Other tournament wins
Double Diamond Masters 1983 Unipart British Professional 1987 WDF World Cup – Team 1983 Nations Cup – Team 1984 PDC Eastbourne Open 2001 Eastbourne Pro 2001
Updated on 12 April 2019.

Keith Deller MBE (born 24 December 1959) is an English former professional darts player best known for winning the 1983 BDO World Darts Championship. He also won the Unipart British Professional Championship in 1987.

He was the first qualifier to win the World Darts Championship and remains one of the youngest champions in history. For his World Championship win, Deller used 18-gram spring-loaded darts, later banned for tournament play but now legal again.

Career

BDO

Deller's victory over Eric Bristow in the 1983 BDO World Darts Championship by six sets to five was probably the biggest upset in the history of the championship. He had also beaten world number three John Lowe in the quarter-finals and defending champion and world number two Jocky Wilson in the semi-final, to become the only player in history to defeat the world's top three ranked players in the World Championship. The tabloid headlines the following day were "Killed Three", an anagram of his name. The champion's prize money in 1983 was £8,000.

His checkout of 138 to clinch the trophy is amongst the most memorable in darting history. Bristow had left himself 50 to stay in the match, but decided to throw for single 18 with his last dart to leave double 16 instead of a more difficult attempt at the bullseye. Deller then hit treble 20, treble 18, double 12 for the title, and even to this day commentators often refer to 138 as the "Deller checkout" if a player is left with that score.

Despite a meteoric rise to world champion, his career results failed to maintain that level. On the defence of his world title, he lost in the first round to Nicky Virachkul, and he only won three further matches in the BDO World Championship in subsequent years. He did win the British Professional Championship in 1987, but generally his world ranking continued to fall, and he failed to qualify for the World Championship between 1989 and 1993. One of his more notable achievements in the years following his world title win is his 100.30 average in his quarter-final match against John Lowe in the 1985 World Championship; this made him the first-ever player to record a three-figure average in a BDO world championship match.

PDC

Deller was one of the players who broke away from the British Darts Organisation in 1992 and joined the WDC, now the PDC. This saw him gain some more television exposure, and he did produce a few resurgent performances to reach the semi-finals of the 1998 PDC World Championship and also the semi-finals of the 1998 PDC World Matchplay. Deller dropped out of the top 32 of the PDC's World Rankings around 2005 and therefore had to attempt qualification for their major tournaments – which he failed to do for the 2006, 2007 and 2008 PDC World Championships. He now competes much less on the circuit, including around half a dozen UK Open Regional events during 2007. He also performs in exhibition matches with fellow players such as John Lowe.

Records

Deller's name has been in the record books on a couple of occasions. He held the Guinness World Record for the fastest three legs of 301 in 97 seconds. On 13 October 1984 he was on the wrong end of a piece of darting history when Lowe hit the first-ever televised nine-dart finish against him in the quarter-finals of the MFI World Matchplay. He became the first player to achieve a match average of 100 in a BDO World Championship match.

On 7 August 2012, Deller recorded a 25 second 301, checking out 130 on the bullseye for a new world record time. This beat the record of 33 seconds by Dean Gould, recorded earlier on the same day at the same venue, the Olympia Great British Beer Festival.

Spotter

Deller has for many years been part of the Sky Sports broadcasting team acting as a "spotter" for the cameras. His knowledge of the players and scoring shots helps the director and camera operators to anticipate where the next dart will be thrown.

Personal life

Deller supports his local football club, Ipswich Town. He lives with his wife Kim and has two children.

He was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2024 New Year Honours, having raised large sums of money for various charities, including over £500,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support.

World Championship performances

BDO

• 1983: Winner (beat Eric Bristow 6–5)
• 1984: First round (lost to Nicky Virachkul 1–2)
• 1985: Quarter-final (lost to John Lowe 2–4)
• 1986: Second round (lost to Alan Glazier 1–3)
• 1987: First round (lost to Brian Cairns 0–3)
• 1988: First round (lost to John Lowe 1–3)

PDC

• 1994: Group Stage (lost to Steve Brown 1–3 and Kevin Spiolek 1–3)
• 1995: Group Stage (lost to Larry Butler 2–3 and Kevin Spiolek 1–3)
• 1996: Quarter-finals (lost to Phil Taylor 0–4)
• 1997: Quarter-finals (lost to Phil Taylor 1–5)
• 1998: Semi-finals (lost to Dennis Priestley 1–5 and lost the third place match to Rod Harrington 1–4)
• 1999: First round (lost to Bob Anderson 2–3)
• 2000: Second round (lost to John Lowe 1–3)
• 2001: Quarter-finals (lost to Phil Taylor 0–4)
• 2002: First round (lost to Rod Harrington 3–4)
• 2003: Second round (lost to Richie Burnett 3–4)
• 2004: Third round (lost to Peter Manley 2–4)
• 2005: Second round (lost to Wayne Jones 1–3)

WSDT

• 2022: Second round (lost to Larry Butler 2–3)
• 2023: Second round (lost to Neil Duff 0–3)
• 2024: First round (lost to Richie Burnett 1-3)

Performance timeline

Tournament	1983	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
BDO World Championship	W	1R	QF	2R	1R	1R	Did not qualify					No longer a BDO Member
Winmau World Masters	4R	F	3R	3R	3R	2R	Did not qualify				No longer a BDO Member
British Professional	1R	2R	2R	SF	W	QF	Not held
MFI World Matchplay	NH	QF	1R	1R	SF	1R	Not held
PDC World Championship	Not yet founded											RR	RR	QF	QF	SF	1R	2R	QF	1R	2R	4R	2R	DNQ
World Matchplay	Not held											2R	QF	1R	1R	SF	1R	1R	1R	QF	2R	1R	1R	DNQ
World Grand Prix	Not held															1R	QF	2R	2R	1R	2R	Did not qualify
UK Open	Not held																				3R	2R	3R	4R	3R

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

External links

• Keith Deller's profile and stats on Darts Database Archived 4 December 2020 at the Wayback Machine
• Video Clip of John Lowe's nine dart finish v Keith Deller