Former Auckland Darts Masters champion Kyle Anderson passes away

The darting world has woken up to some more sad news on Tuesday morning with the passing of Australian darting star, Kyle Anderson at the age of 33.

This news was announced by the Professional Darts Players Association at around 7:00am BST.

'The Original' first qualified for the 2013 PDC World Darts Championship winning the prestigious Oceanic Masters but he lost to Steve Beaton. He soon returned though dominating the DPA Order of Merit to qualify for the 2014 edition where he produced one of his most memorable moments.

At 2-1 down, he produced an incredible nine-dart finish which was the second in less than an hour after Terry Jenkins. He was defeated 3-1 but this display lived on as he went to Q-School weeks after and succeeded on the opening day.

From there, he based himself over to the UK in Nottingham making the sacrifice of leaving his family back in Australia to chase his darting dream which was mostly the case until the Coronavirus lockdown in early 2020.

After further success on the tour, he reached his first Quarter-Final in a major tournament at the UK Open by defeating Andy Hamilton, James Wilson and Benito van de Pas in 2016 which acted as a catalyst for the best year of his career.

Following visa issues, Anderson couldn't play in multiple tournaments including the World Championship in 2016/17 but returned in time for the 2017 season which saw him claim his first ProTour title and return home to win the Auckland Darts Masters, a World Series tournament. Following that, he made the semi-finals of the European Championship hitting a memorable nine-darter against Michael van Gerwen and coming so close to potentially winning a maiden major title.

This form did not continue for Anderson but he returned to Australia at the start of 2020 following the suspension of tournaments choosing not to return and resign his Tour Card prior to the start of the 2021 season.