'Colin Lloyd' (born
August 7,
1973 in
Colchester,
Essex), nicknamed ''Jaws'', is a darts player on the
Professional Darts Corporation circuit. He is currently ranked the World number 6 in the
PDC rankings. His entrance music is "
Monster" by
The Automatic.
A former builder, Lloyd broke onto the scene in 1999, making his TV debut the same year, thrashing Alan Warriner 13-2 in the second round of the World Matchplay. His major breakthrough was in the 2002 PDC World Championship, where he reached the semi-finals losing to
Peter Manley.
That semi-final in the World Championship established him as one of the top players on the PDC circuit. His long-awaited first major title came in the 2004 World Grand Prix, where he beat
Alan Warriner-Little in the final. This was followed by success in the 2005 World Matchplay Championships in
Blackpool, beating
John Part in the final, ending the match on a maximum 170 checkout. He also reached the final of the 2005 World Grand Prix before losing 7-1 to
Phil Taylor.
This good form made him second favourite in the 2006 World Championship, only behind
Phil Taylor in terms of odds. Unfortunately for Lloyd, he was knocked out in the first round by qualifier
Gary Welding, having led 2-0 in the best-of-5 match.
Despite this, Lloyd remains one of the biggest names in darts at the moment. He has competed in all 3 Premier League Darts competitions, a tournament restricted to only the top seven players on the PDC circuit. In 2005, he finished second after the league stage but lost to
Phil Taylor in the final.In 2006 he went out to eventual winner Phil Taylor in the semi finals. He also reached the final of the 2006 IDL before losing to Raymond van Barneveld.
He was the long time holder of the PDC's World Number One spot until the 11th June 2006, when he lost it to
Phil Taylor. 'The Power' beat Lloyd 11-2 in the 5th Round of the Budweiser UK Open in Bolton to take the number one ranking, before he was knocked out by eventual winner Raymond van Barneveld 11-10 in the quarter-finals. Lloyd has since regained the number one ranking through success in non-televised tournaments.
Lloyd's disappointing form continued going into the 2006 World Matchplay Championships. As the holder going into the tournament, he never took the lead nor found his form in his first round match against fellow Essex man
Steve Maish and, despite a ten-dart leg where he was two darts away from a
nine dart finish, he slumped to a shock 10-6 defeat.
In the 2007 World Championships, Lloyd succumbed to Raymond van Barneveld in a thrilling second round encounter. In the first to 4 sets, Colin found himself leading 3-0, before "Barney" turned on the style in one of the best ever comebacks. Colin showed his class, but missed four darts to win the match. Due to the nature of the defeat and van Barneveld going on to win the tournament, this was a bitterly disappointing World Championship for Jaws.
External links
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Profile on PDC official website