brave (6–11 in legs) loss to eventual winner Taylor. In February 2007, he won the UK Open South-West Regional tournament, beating James Wade in the final. Priestley's form dipped later in 2007, although this was greatly overshadowed by his battle with prostate cancer. Priestley failed to qualify for the Grand Slam of Darts in 2009, but he did win the US Open. Taylor chose not to participate in the event. Priestley exited the 2010 PDC World Championship in the first round after losing 3–2 to Kevin McDine. He exited the 2011 PDC World Championships in the second round of the tournament after losing 4–2 to Gary Anderson. In the 2011 season, Priestley dropped out of the top 32 in the PDC Order of Merit meaning he would have to try to qualify for the World Championship via the PDPA Qualifying tournament and was narrowly beaten at the Quarter Final stage 5–4 by Joe Cullen after throwing away a 4–0 lead in that match. This meant that Priestley would not be taking part in the World Championship for the first time in 20 years despite still showing some world class form at the previous months Championship League of Darts. In 2012, Priestley qualified for the 2012 UK Open, where he lost in the fifth round to eventual winner Robert Thornton. He also qualified for his first European Tour Event, the Dutch Darts Masters, and was beaten 3–6 by Andy Smith in the first round. In November, Priestley reached the final of the Players Championship 17 in Crawley, where he was beaten 2–6 by Simon Whitlock, having defeated an in-form Michael van Gerwen 6–1 in the semi-finals, despite his opponent averaging 105. His run to the final and successive quarter-final defeats in the last two events secured his qualification for the World Championship in December through the ProTour Order of Merit. He played Ronnie Baxter in the first round and lost 1–3. Priestley only entered a handful of events in 2013 and his best finish came in May at the third Players Championship where he lost 6–2 in the quarter-finals to Robert Thornton. Despite this, he still had a tour card for 2014, as he was world number 51 at the start of the season, inside the top 64. At the start of 2015, Dennis announced that he had retired from professional darts, but would still do exhibitions. Personal life Away from