Dave Whitcombe

Age: 53 (born June 27 1954)
Home town: Sittingbourne, Kent
Nickname: None
Claim to fame: World Masters champion 1982, 1985, World Championship runner-up 1984, 1986
Dave Whitcombe reached two World Championship finals in the mid-1980s but lost to Eric Bristow both times, winning a total of only one set in the process. Indeed, the ‘Crafty Cockney’ always had the edge in their battles in the game’s biggest tournament – they met six times in all and Whitcombe never beat his deadly rival. Whitcombe took a step back from the game when the PDC was formed in 1993 and went on to become a publican, but in 2004 he made a comeback and successfully came through the qualifiers to book a place in the 2006 World Championship.