FORGOTTEN DARTERS: Graham Hunt became first Australian to win a major tournament

In this column, we regularly reminisce about forgotten darters from the past. Today it's the turn of Australian Graham Hunt, who had his moment of glory at the 1997 Winmau World Masters.

Hunt was born on December 7, 1953 in Perth, Australia. He was first introduced to the general public in 1997 at the BDO World Championship. Against Mervyn King, however, he lost 3-1 in the first round.

Later that year, Hunt again made the crossing to England to contest the Winmau World Masters at London's Paragon Hotel. Hunt was not lucky with the draw as in the first round he had to face Erik Clarys, winner of the Winmau World Masters three years earlier. 

Hunt proved too strong for Clarys, however, and he also took revenge on Mervyn King for his World Championship defeat earlier that year. In the end, 'Hunty' would make it all the way to the final. It was a very exciting final in which Hunt eventually was too strong for Ronnie Baxter 3-2. It was also the first time an Australian had won a major.

A year later, Hunt did not defend his title but did win the Australian Masters. In 1999 he was there for the second time as fourth seed and defeated Andy Jenkins 3-1 in the first round. In the second round, Martin Adams proved too strong for Hunt.

In 2000, the Australian was part of the BDO World Championship for the last time. However, there was not much of a run for him because in the opening round, he lost against Steve Beaton. He returned to the Winmau World Masters in 2002, but this time he didn't make it past the last 64.

Hunt played a few more tournaments in Oceania in the following years, but then disappeared from darts. In 2017 he made a short comeback at the age of 64, but he did not get further than a few quarter-final places at local tournaments. In 2019 he said goodbye to darts for good.