26 Facts About Wayne Mardle

Wayne Elliot Mardle was born on 10 May 1973 and is an English former professional darts player who played in events of the Professional Darts Corporation and British Darts Organisation.

Wayne Mardle was runner-up in three PDC majors, losing to Phil Taylor on each occasion.

Wayne Mardle has been known as "Hawaii 501" since 2000, a play on the title of the popular television series Hawaii Five-O, due to the Hawaiian shirts he started wearing in 1998 for a bet, and 501 being the start score of a leg of darts.

Wayne Mardle started playing darts at the age of 11, when he practised with his dad.

Wayne Mardle soon became better than his dad, and his first competition win was in a pub called the 'Double Top' on his thirteenth birthday in 1986.

From 2004 to 2006, Wayne Mardle reached three consecutive world championship semi-finals, losing to Taylor in 2004 and 2006, and Mark Dudbridge in 2005.

Wayne Mardle played in the first two editions of the Premier League, in 2005 and 2006,2008 and 2009.

Players who come bottom of the League are said to have won the "Wayne Mardle Cup," named in honour of him.

In 2007, Wayne Mardle was beaten in the opening round of the World Championship by unseeded Alan Caves, and subsequently failed to reach the latter stages of a single event that year.

Wayne Mardle later described his attitude going into the match as "nonchalant" and stated that he did not give Shepherd the respect he deserved.

In January 2008 Wayne Mardle was confirmed as the Sky Sports wildcard entry to the 2008 Premier League following his impressive performance at the World Championships.

Whilst this decision was questioned by some, Wayne Mardle proved the doubters wrong with a steady campaign which saw him finish in fifth place, missing out on the Play-Offs by just two legs to Adrian Lewis.

At the 2009 Premier League, Wayne Mardle amassed only four points from his opening nine games, then missed week ten due to a virus.

Wayne Mardle had been due to return the following week, but was rushed into hospital the day before the matches due to mumps.

Wayne Mardle later stated that his form never recovered after his six-month absence due to mumps.

Wayne Mardle continued to drop out the rankings and was ranked as low as 85th in the Order of Merit.

However, on the eve of the first Q School qualifier, Wayne Mardle announced on his Twitter page that he had decided not to go to Q School and instead focus on commentating for Sky Sports and playing in exhibitions.

Wayne Mardle made his commentating debut for the PDC at the 2011 PDC World Darts Championship, working alongside Sid Waddell in a few matches.

Wayne Mardle co-presented some of the event with Dave Clark and predicting some of the match results with Rod Harrington and Eric Bristow.

Wayne Mardle continued his analyzing and commentary career at the 2011 Premier League Darts apart from weeks 3,5,9,10,11 and 14.

Wayne Mardle continued his commentary career in the 2012 PDC World Darts Championship, where he co-commentated on every night of the televised event.

Wayne Mardle has since become a regular on all Sky televised tournaments both as a commentator during matches and as the main pundit in the studio portions of the show.

Wayne Mardle has been a keen advocate for the support of players suffering from Dartitis.

In 2013, Wayne Mardle spoke about former 5 Time World Champion Eric Bristow and outlined that Dartitis was "the fear of throwing the dart" and emphasised how it "must've been awful" for Bristow.

In 2017, Wayne Mardle supported Berry van Peer following a severe case of Dartitis during the Grand Slam of Darts in Wolverhampton.

Wayne Mardle developed upon these, revealing that Greaves is "a superstar in the making" with the ability to overcome her own struggles and match the achievements of fellow Sky Sports presenter and Former 3 Time World Champion John Part.