Robert Thornton (born 17 July 1967) is a Scottish professional darts player who formerly competed in British Darts Organisation (BDO) and Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. In the BDO he won the 2007 Winmau World Masters and 2008 Dutch Open. He switched to the PDC in 2008 and won 2 PDC major titles; the UK Open in 2012, and World Grand Prix in 2015. Additionally, Thornton won 11 titles on the PDC Pro Tour.
After losing his PDC Tour Card, Thornton won the World Seniors Darts (WSD) World Championship twice. He also won the 2022 World Seniors Matchplay.
BDO career Thornton returned to playing darts in 2002, having given up the game for two decades to raise his children. He qualified for the BDO World Championship for the first time in 2005. He beat Martin Atkins and Tony West before losing to Darryl Fitton in the quarter-finals. He then failed to qualify for the 2006 and 2007 events.
Thornton's first professional title came in the Central Scotland Open in April 2007, beating Mike Veitch in the final. He also won the Scottish Masters by defeating Ross Montgomery. He failed to make it through the qualifying event for the 2008 World Championship, but did make it to the televised stages of the 2007 Winmau World Masters in the same weekend. Thornton then beat Co Stompé, BDO world champion Martin Adams, and Atkins to reach the final. He managed to avenge his defeat by Fitton at the 2005 Lakeside World Championship to claim his first major title by 7 sets to 5 and win the £25,000 first prize and also a place in the 2008 World Championship.
His appearance at the World Championship was only his second visit to Lakeside and he matched his previous appearance by reaching the quarter-finals. Having beaten John Walton and Tony O'Shea, he lost to defending champion Adams. Thornton's good form continued into 2008 when he won the Dutch Open in February and reached the last eight of the Scottish Open a week later to achieve a career high of third in the WDF world rankings and was top of the BDO rankings.
PDC career Thornton qualified for the 2008 UK Open via the Pub qualifiers and then went on to switch to the PDC after withdrawing from the Scottish team for the Europe Cup, stating that his first goal was to get into the top 16 of the PDC Order of Merit which would guarantee his place in all the major tournaments. At the UK Open he lost 9–6 to Alan Tabern in the last 32. Thornton qualified for the Las Vegas Desert Classic losing again in the last 32 this time 6–5 against Adrian Lewis, but went one better at the World Grand Prix when he beat Peter Manley 2–1 in sets in the first round before being defeated 3–2 by Andy Hamilton in the last 16. His good start to his career in the PDC continued at the European Championship where he saw off John Part, Mensur Suljović and Ronnie Baxter to advance to the semi-finals for the first time and a meeting with Phil Taylor. Thornton averaged 102.12 in the match but Taylor averaged 113.33 as he won 11–7. Thornton's World Masters title from last year saw him qualify for the Grand Slam of Darts and he advanced from Group E with wins over Gary Mawson and Kirk Shepherd, before being edged out 10–8 by Terry Jenkins in the last 16. Away from the television cameras on the PDC Pro Tour he won the Australian Open Players Championship with a 3–1 success against Paul Nicholson. He was a losing semi-finalist three times and a quarter-finalist four times in the other events to finish as the highest non-qualified player on the Pro Tour Order of Merit for the 2009 PDC World Championship.
At the World Championship, he won 3–1 against Wayne Jones, but went out in the second round with a 4–3 defeat to world number eight Wayne Mardle. However, this performance guaranteed Thornton a spot in the top 32 of the PDC Order of Merit – just eight months after his defection from the BDO. He reached his first PDC final at the Players Championship Finals. Seeded 14 in the tournament based on the previous year's floor events, Thornton edged Mark Dudbridge in the first round on a final-leg decider. This gave him a second round tie with world number 10 and third seed Alan Tabern, in which Thornton dominated 6–2 after Tabern had missed a dart for a 3–1 lead. He then played a resurgent Dennis Priestley – who had earlier been on the brink of defeat, losing 5–0 to John Part before rattling off six consecutive legs to win the match – in the quarter-finals. Those heroics seemed to fatigue Priestley as he slumped to a 9–5 defeat to Thornton, which earned him a semi-final place against world number two James Wade. In a very tight semi-final, Thornton won four of the last five legs to earn a 13–10 victory and a spot in the final against Phil Taylor, who had only dropped eight legs in the tournament to that point. With the scores level at 5–5 early on, Taylor came out on top 16–9, however Thornton earned £25,000 for making the final, propelling him up the rankings. Thornton became only the third player to win both events of a PDC Pro Tour weekend in Irvine, North Ayrshire, when he beat Dennis Priestley to win both the Scottish Players Championship and the Scottish Regional qualifier for the UK Open. He made his Premier League debut in Aberdeen in an exhibition match against James Wade. Thornton lost 7–2. By this time, Thornton had reached number 19 in the PDC Order of Merit. He lost 9–2 to Adrian Lewis in the third round of the UK Open and 10–4 to Taylor in the first round of the World Matchplay. Thornton saw off Wes Newton 6–4 in the opening round of the European Championship, but lost to Taylor once more as he was whitewashed 9–0, with Thornton's average of 83.24 being almost 30 points lower than his opponents. Thornton topped Group H at the Grand Slam of Darts and then edged past Darin Young in the last 16 10–9, but was knocked out 16–9 in the quarter-finals by Terry Jenkins.
Thornton defeated two qualifiers in Christian Perez and Jyhan Artut at the 2010 World Championship, before Taylor was once again the victor when the two met in the last 16 this time winning by four sets to one.
Thornton was a fixture in the world's top 16 but then broke his hand and later his 2011 season was curtailed significantly after being rushed to hospital complaining of chest pains, breathing problems and headaches. He was diagnosed with pneumonia and did not play again until the 2012 World Championship, where he lost in the second round to Adrian Lewis.
First PDC major In June 2012, Thornton won his second major title and first in the PDC, the 2012 UK Open. He came through an extremely tough draw, which included defeats over former world champions, Mark Webster and Dennis Priestley, and world numbers 4 and 5, Gary Anderson and Wes Newton. In the semi-finals he faced rising star Dave Chisnall and with the scores level at 2–2 early on, Thornton produced a devastating run and took the match 10–4 to reach his second major PDC final, where he played fifteen time world champion Phil Taylor. Thornton trailed 0–2 in the final but then won nine of the next ten legs, as his opponent missed 23 darts at a double, and went on to seal an 11–5 victory with a 121 finish. He moved 11 places in the rankings from number 34 to 23 thanks to the win, with the £40,000 prize he won being the highest of his career. In the next major event, the World Matchplay, Thornton was whitewashed 0–10 by Adrian Lewis in the first round. In October, Thornton reached the final of the 13th Players Championship, but lost to Michael van Gerwen 5–6, after leading 4–1. He atoned for this just one day later as he won the 14th event, defeating Gary Anderson 6–5 in an all Scottish final. The next day, Thornton came from behind to beat Mark Walsh 2–1 in sets in the first round of the World Grand Prix. He was then involved in one of the best games in the tournament's history as he again overcame Taylor, this time by 3 sets to 2, hitting eight maximums and taking out 101 and 104 checkouts and surviving six match darts from Taylor. He played Mervyn King in the quarter-finals and lost 0–3 in 31 minutes, winning just four legs during the match. He continued his good form in the Players Championships at the 15th event by reaching another final, this time losing to Peter Wright 1–6. Thornton finished second in Group B of the Grand Slam of Darts to qualify for the last 16, but then lost 8–10 to former champion Scott Waites. After all 33 ProTour events of 2012 had been played, Thornton finished 10th on the Order of Merit to qualify for the Players Championship Finals where compatriot Gary Anderson beat him 10–6 in the second round.
2013 season At the 2013 World Championship Thornton missed four darts to win 4–2 in the second round against Paul Nicholson and another one in the deciding set. Nicholson threw for the match and left 58 after 12 darts, only for Thornton to take out 130. Thornton won the bull to throw first in the sudden-death leg and won it to set up a last 16 meeting with Phil Taylor. However, Thornton could only win three legs as he bowed out of the tournament with a 4–0 defeat. Thornton partnered Gary Anderson for the third time at the World Cup of Darts and they were shocked by Spain 5–4 in the last 16.
Thornton qualified for the Premier League for the first time thanks to his UK Open win last year. He produced some very impressive performances in the first half of the campaign such as in week four when he scored his highest ever televised average of 109.33 during a 7–2 win over Anderson. He also averaged 107.65 in beating Simon Whitlock 7–1 in week eight, and after the ninth week he was in the top four who would qualify for the play-offs at the end of the season. Thornton suffered somewhat of a dip in form after this as he could only win two of his next five games and went into the last week needing to beat the Dutch duo of Raymond van Barneveld and Michael van Gerwen to progress to the play-offs. He lost to van Barneveld 7–4 and, after other results had gone against him, needed an unlikely 7–0 victory over van Gerwen, but instead was beaten 7–1 to end the season in fifth place.