Andrew Jenkins (born 11 March 1971) is an English professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He was nicknamed "Rocky" due to his rough personality. Jenkins has reached high rankings in the PDC, but has never won a major tournament. In 2009, Jenkins was given a PDC ban for almost two years for an assault on Terry Jenkins during a non-televised PDC tournament.
Career
BDO
Jenkins began his career playing in British Darts Organisation competitions and had some success in the open events. He took the Embassy British Gold Cup Singles in 1994, England Open in 2000, Swiss Open and Japan Open in 2001 and the Isle of Man Open in 2002.
His record at the BDO World Darts Championship was disappointing. He made his debut at the Lakeside Country Club in 1995, and managed only one win in his seven consecutive appearances. His only victory came in 1996 against Belgian Bruno Raes, and suffered defeats to Sean Palfrey (1995), Andy Fordham (1996, 1998), Ronnie Baxter (1997), Graham Hunt (1999), Colin Monk (2000) and Kevin Painter (2001).
Despite his poor record at Lakeside, Jenkins made it to the semi-finals of the revived News of the World Darts Championship in 1997, and the quarter-finals of the Winmau World Masters in 1999 and 2000.
PDC
He decided to switch to the Professional Darts Corporation in 2002 where his first round jinx continued - he lost to number nine seed Denis Ovens at the 2002 PDC World Championship. He rose steadily up the world rankings after joining the PDC and was seeded 10th for the 2003 World Championship. Again he went out in the first round to Chris Mason.
When the World Championship field expanded in 2004, the top players joined in at the third round stage - where Jenkins again lost his first match (to Bob Anderson). At the 2005 World Championship, Jenkins finally notched up a victory over Peter Evison, who had played dreadfully, averaging just 67.34 for the match. Jenkins went out to Painter in the last 16. A second round defeat came in the 2006 World Championship - Jenkins was seeded eight (his highest ever ranking) who defeat Patrick Bulen and but went down to Wayne Jones.
He went into the 2007 World Championship as the number 12 seed. He finally managed a decent run to justify his consistent high ranking, putting out highly fancied Adrian Lewis in the last 16 on his way to the semi-final. Raymond van Barneveld was too strong for him and won 6-0. In the 2008 World Championship, Jenkins got through a tough first-round game against Czech qualifier Miloslav Navratil but was then beaten 4-0 by Alan Tabern in the second round.
Jenkins has had more success away from the World Championships. He reached the semi-finals of the World Grand Prix in 2002 and the semi-finals of the UK Open in 2004 - losing to John Part on both occasions.
Jenkins received a suspension from the tour following misconduct at the PDC's German Open event. He returned to the circuit on 15 May, with another nine months suspended in case of future misdemeanours. His suspension however cost him a place in the 2008 World Matchplay as he didn't win enough money to qualify.
He beat Phil Taylor at the 2008 Grand Slam of Darts but went out in the last 16 to Simon Whitlock.
Jenkins suffered a first round exit in the 2009 PDC World Championship, losing to Co Stompé. His inability to defend semi-final prize money from the 2007 Championship, meant that Jenkins dropped out of the top 32 on the PDC Order of Merit.
In November 2009, the Darts Regulation Authority gave Jenkins a 24-month ban (20 months suspended) for an assault on Terry Jenkins that took place at the Nuland Players Championship in the Netherlands in October.