FORGOTTEN DARTERS: Jamie Caven: A life plagued by adversity, but still carved out a fine career

In this column, we regularly reminisce about a "forgotten darter" from the past. Today it is the turn of Englishman Jamie Caven.  

Jamie Caven was born on March 10, 1976, in Leicester. Barely eighteen months later, he lost his right eye after being stung by a bee. However, it did not stop him from working his way up to become a talented dart player. At the age of 17, he won the junior title at the Winmau World Masters by beating his compatriot Lee Palfreyman 3-1 in the final.

At the age of 20, Caven again faced fate. He developed pancreatic cancer, survived, but has since had to receive four insulin injections daily for the rest of his life.

However, even this setback did not get Caven down. In 2008 he managed to qualify for the PDC World Darts Championship for the first time. In the opening round he immediately pulled off a shock by sending 24th seed Wes Newton home 3-0. In the second round Wayne Mardle eventually proved too strong 4-1.

A year later, he won his first of a total of six Players Championships. That year he also reached the quarter-finals at a major for the first time. At the UK Open, he went down 10-3 against finalist Colin Osborne.

Jabba," as his nickname went, continued to smoothly compete in the top-32 of the world rankings in the years that followed. However, he never made it further than the quarter-finals (UK Open 2012, European Championship 2010 and 2013 and Players Championship Finals 2014). At the World Championship, a place in the last 16 in 2016 was his best performance.

In 2018, Caven failed to qualify for the World Championship for the first time in a decade. He also failed in 2019 and thus Caven lost his Tour Card. Afterwards, he made a few attempts at Q-School, but failed to recapture his Tour Card. Caven played a few more tournaments on the BDO Tour in 2019, they were his last international tournaments for now.