Colin Lloyd - Loss of Form

Loss of Form

Lloyd suffered a surprise defeat in the first round of the 2006 World Championship then a heavy defeat 2–11 to Taylor at the 2006 UK Open saw his form in televised events dip dramatically.

He lost in the first round of the 2006 Las Vegas Desert Classic to Chris Mason, to Steve Maish (despite a ten-dart leg where he was two darts away from a nine dart finish) at the 2006 World Matchplay and to Bob Anderson in the first round of the World Grand Prix. He lost his world number one ranking after a second round loss to eventual world champion van Barneveld at the 2007 PDC World Championship. He had led 3–0 in sets but missed four darts for the match and lost the next four sets.

Lloyd lost in the first round of the 2007 US Open to Jim Widmayer before showing some improvement with a run to the semi-finals of the 2007 UK Open. But he continued to lose ranking places as his good results from the two-year ranking period were replaced with further first round losses to Wes Newton at the 2007 Las Vegas Desert Classic and to Mervyn King at the 2007 World Matchplay.

He went into the 2008 World Championship ranked 12th in the world, having been number one just twelve months previously. He missed a dart at bullseye to win his first round match with Jan van der Rassel and then lost 2–3 (6–4 in legs in the final set).

Lloyd's poor form at the 2009 World Championship continued as he lost in straight sets to Holland's Jelle Klaasen in the first round.

After winning his first round match at the 2009 World Matchplay against Wayne Jones, Lloyd announced that he had just recovered from swine flu and had been placed in isolation for five days. Lloyd kept the news a secret until his interview with Sky Sports after the match.

In the 2011 PDC World Darts Championship Colin, whilst playing the German darts player Andree Welge out of frustration from slipping from a 2–0 lead to be all square at 2–2, controversially punched the dart board. Despite winning the match 3–2 with a 116 out shot, after the match Colin said that he regretted what he did and said it was born out of pure frustration. He also added in the interview that he expected to be fined by the PDC.

He comfortably made it to the last 16 of the 2012 World Championship by beating Darin Young and Scott Rand, 3–1 and 4–1 respectively. However, he struggled against world number four Gary Anderson in the next round, losing 1–4 as his opponent averaged 100. In April, Lloyd dropped out of the world's top 16 for the first time in over a decade and will need to qualify for the upcoming major events if he does not regain his place. In his next major event, the UK Open, Lloyd posted an encouraging result by defeating reigning champion James Wade 9–5, but then lost to world number 48 Joe Cullen 8–9 in the last 32. Lloyd hit a nine-dart finish in the first round of the European Tour Event 2 during a 6–5 win over Alex Roy. In July, he won the tenth Players Championship of the year, his first ranking title in almost 2 years. He beat Andy Hamilton 6–5 in the final and briefly returned to the top 16. He was ranked 17th at the cut-off point before the World Matchplay, but still qualified due to his position on the ProTour Order of Merit. Lloyd faced Mark Webster in the first round and was defeated 6–10. After all 33 ProTour events of 2012 had been played, Lloyd was 16th on the Order of Merit, which qualified him for the Players Championship Finals where he was beaten by Peter Wright 5–6 in the first round, after being 5–3 ahead.

Lloyd overcame Darin Young and Mark Webster to face Michael van Gerwen in the last 16 of the 2013 World Championship, and was beaten 1–4.