Introduction
Barrie Bates (born 17 October 1969) is a Welsh darts player who played on the Professional Darts Corporation circuit. Born in Merthyr Tydfil, he currently resides in Bedlinog, Mid-Glamorgan. His original nickname was Batesy, but has since 2007 has been known as Champagne, because of his bubbly personality.
Career
Bates made his PDC televised debut at the 2003 UK Open reaching the third round. In 2005 he narrowly lost a last-32 match to Lionel Sams at the UK Open and made a superb run to the final in 2006 before losing to Raymond van Barneveld.
He made a great impression on the circuit in 2006, winning the John Smiths Singles in February and May's Le Skratch Sarantos Retsinas Memorial event in Montreal. He also reached two Regional Finals of the UK Open in March (losing to Chris Mason and to van Barneveld in November. He reached two PDPA Players Championship finals in 2006 losing to Colin Lloyd in the Isle of Wight in June, but beat Phil Taylor to take his biggest title to date in the Netherlands event in November.
His success at events away from the television cameras during 2006 helped him to win the awardof "Best Floor Player" at the first PDC Awards Dinner. It refers to the non-televised events which feature many boards alongside each other on a smaller arena floor.
He made his World Championship debut in 2007 as the number 17 seed, but suffered a surprise first round defeat to Canadian Brian Cyr. In the 2008 World Championship, Bates got to the third round only to lose to Kirk Shepherd. In the 2009 tournament, Bates defeated Northern Ireland's Felix McBrearty and American Bill Davis to reach the third round again, this time meeting Mark Dudbridge, winning 4-0 with checkout percentage of 60% to reach the quarter finals for the very first time. He lost in the quarters however, falling to twelfth seed Mervyn King by five sets to two.
In January 2019, after several years struggling with injury and playing his darts on the PDC Challenge Tour, Bates won back his PDC Tour Card for the first time since 2012. He squeezed into the top eleven of the UK Q-School Order of Merit to seal a two-year Tour Card.
World Championship Results
PDC
- 2007: 1st Round (lost to Brian Cyr 2-3)
- 2008: 3rd Round (lost to Kirk Shepherd 2-4)
- 2009: Quarter-Finals (lost to Mervyn King 2-5)
- 2010: 2nd Round (lost to Kevin McDine 0-4)
- 2011: 1st Round (lost to Kevin McDine 1-3)
Career statistics
| W | F | SF | QF | #R | RR | Prel. | DNQ | DNP | NH |
Performance timeline
| Tournament | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PDC World Championship | DNQ | 1R | 3R | QF | 2R | 1R | DNQ | |||||||||||
| World Matchplay | DNQ | 1R | 2R | DNQ | 1R | DNQ | ||||||||||||
| World Grand Prix | DNQ | 1R | 1R | DNQ | QF | DNQ | ||||||||||||
| Las Vegas Desert Classic | DNQ | 2R | DNQ | 1R | DNQ | Not held | ||||||||||||
| UK Open | 3R | 3R | 5R | F | 4R | 4R | 3R | 3R | 1R | DNQ | 3R | DNQ | 1R | |||||
| Grand Slam of Darts | Not held | RR | DNQ | RR | RR | DNQ | ||||||||||||
| European Championship | Not held | DNQ | 2R | DNQ | ||||||||||||||
| Players Championship Finals | Not held | DNQ | 1R | DNQ | ||||||||||||||
| International Darts League | DNP | RR | Not held | |||||||||||||||
PDC major finals: 1 (1 runner-up)
| Outcome | No. | Year | Championship | Opponent in the final | Score |
| Runner-up | 1. | 2006 | UK Open | Raymond van Barneveld | 7–13 (l) |
PDC team finals: 1 (1 runner-up)
| Outcome | No. | Year | Championship | Country | Teammate | Opponents in the final | Score |
| 1. | 2010 | World Cup of Darts |  Wales
|
Mark Webster |  Netherlands – Raymond van Barneveld and Co Stompé
|
2–4 (m) |