BACK IN THE DAY WITH: John Walton: World champion and virtually unbeatable for a year

In this column, we regularly go back in time with a particular darter. Today we do so with Englishman John Walton.

John Walton was born on November 10, 1961, in Bradford. In his early years as a darter, he was mainly active at the local level and managed to win a few small tournaments. However, it was not until he was almost 40 before he managed to show himself internationally as well. In 1999 he managed to qualify for the BDO World Championship for the first time. At the Lakeside Country Club he went down 3-0 in the opening round against Roland Scholten.

A year later he was not there at the World Championship, but that year he finally broke through. He won his first major international title with the Welsh Open, yet it was mainly his final victory at the Winmau World Masters that stood out. In the final he was a 3-2 winner over Mervyn King, putting a first major title on his record.

Walton thus went into the 2001 BDO World Championship high on confidence. However, that confidence was not confirmed by the bookies, who placed him at 50/1 to capture the world title. However, none other than BBC pundit and former top dart player Bobby George put Walton forward as a future world champion. Prophetic words, as it would later turn out.

'John Boy' started the tournament well, beating Ritchie Davies 3-1 in the opening round. In the second round Mervyn King lost 3-0. In both games Walton averaged around 100 and immediately showed that he and no one else was the top favourite to become world champion. In the quarter-finals, Walton then wiped the floor with Finnish Marko Pusa, winning no less than fourteen consecutive legs and prevailing 5-0. Walton steamed on and in the semifinals defeated Wayne Mardle 5-3. In the World final, Walton faced the previous year's winner Ted Hankey. Both men presented the spectators with a great match, but it was Walton who won quite easily in the end, 6-2, thus crowning a fantastic week. He thus had the two biggest tournaments within the BDO (World Championship and Winmau World Masters) in his hands, something that not many players have managed to do.

Driven by his world title, Walton kept on winning in the months that followed, in fact he was virtually unbeatable with titles at the Belgium Open, the British Classic, the British Open and the Scottish Open, among others. Walton therefore returned to the BDO World Championship the next year as one of the absolute top favourites once again. However, this time he did not succeed. In the opening round he beat Andy Fordham 3-0, but in the second round Colin Monk was too strong 3-2;

Walton's victory lap appeared to be over and in the following years he won only a few smaller international tournaments sporadically. In 2003 he reached the second round again, losing against Davies. A year later he reached the quarter-finals again, but Raymond van Barneveld proved too strong, 5-1.

In 2007, however, Walton made waves yet again. Not with a tournament win, but by throwing a nine darter at the Winmau World Masters. It was the first time in the history of that tournament that a player had thrown a nine darter live on television. Moreover, it was the first to be shown live on the BBC since Paul Lim's famous nine-darter at the 1990 BDO World Championship.

Walton was subsequently hampered by shoulder problems, but still made his presence felt again at the 2009 BDO World Championship. In the first round, he faced his good friend Shaun Greatbatch, who was battling cancer, in an emotionally charged match. Walton eventually won through and a round later also very surprisingly defeated reigning world champion Mark Webster by clear 4-0 scoreline. Walton faced Hankey in the quarterfinals, in a replay of the 2001 World Championship final. This time, however, it was Hankey who prevailed 5-1.

In 2013, he was there for the thirteenth consecutive time at the BDO World Championship. However, things immediately went wrong in the opening round after a 3-0 defeat against Tony O'Shea. Walton struggled to regain his top form in the years that followed and continued to slide down the world rankings. In 2014 and 2015 he could not qualify for the BDO World Championship. International titles also failed to materialize. At the age of 53, the question was whether Walton could return to the top.

In 2015, Walton then decided to take his chance within the PDC. He participated in Q-School, but failed to capture a Tour Card.

His PDC spell eventually proved short-lived, as he returned to the BDO later that year. Thanks in part to a final place at the Malta Open, he still managed to secure a return to Lakeside. In the first round of the 2016 BDO World Championship, however, he went down 3-2 against Brian Dawson. It immediately turned out to be the very last BDO World Championship for Walton, who failed to qualify in the years that followed. His last TV appearance with the BDO came in 2018 at the Winmau World Masters, where he lost 3-1 to Glen Durrant in the last 32.

We heard little from Walton in the years that followed, until he suddenly appeared at the World Senior Championship in 2022. After wins against Les Wallace and John Part successively in the first two rounds, he went down 3-1 against Terry Jenkins in the quarterfinals.

Since then, we saw Walton in action only sporadically on the Modus Super Series. At 62, however, his best years seem to be quietly behind him and the former world champion can start enjoying a well-deserved retirement.