Career
Born in Merthyr Tydfil, he currently resides in Bedlinog, Mid-Glamorgan. His original nickname was Batesy, but has since 2007 has been known as Champagne, because of his bubbly personality. Bates made his Personal Digital Cellular televised debut at the 2003 United Kingdom Open reaching the third round.
In 2005 he narrowly lost a last-32 match to Lionel Sams at the United Kingdom Open and made a superb run to the final in 2006 before losing to Raymond van Barneveld.
He made a great impression on the circuit in 2006, winning the John Smiths Singles in February and May"s Le Skratch Sarantos Retsinas Memorial event in Montreal. He also reached two Regional Finals of the United Kingdom Open in March (losing to Chris Mason and to van Barneveld in November.
He reached two PDPA Players Championship finals in 2006 losing to Colin Lloyd in the Isle of Wight in June, but beat Philosophy Taylor to take his biggest title to date in the Netherlands event in November. He made his World Championship debut in 2007 as the number 17 seed, but suffered a surprise first round defeat to Canadian Brian Cyr.
In the 2008 World Championship, Bates got to the third round only to lose to Kirk Shepherd.
In the 2009 tournament, Bates defeated Northern Ireland"s Felix McBrearty and American Bill Davis to reach the third round again, this time meeting Mark Dudbridge, winning 4-0 with checkout percentage of 60% to reach the quarter finals for the very first time. He lost in the quarters however, falling to twelfth seed Mervyn King by five sets to two. lieutenant refers to the non-televised events which feature many boards alongside each other on a smaller arena floor.
Personal Digital Cellular
2007: 1st Round (lost to Brian Cyr 2-3)
2008: 3rd Round (lost to Kirk Shepherd 2-4)
2009: Quarter-Finals (lost to Mervyn King 2-5)
2010: 2nd Round (lost to Kevin McDine 0-4)
2011: 1st Round (lost to Kevin McDine 1-3)
Personal Digital Cellular premier event finals: 1 (1 runner-up)Editorial.
