John Walton (darts player)

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John Walton
Walton with the World Championship trophy, 2001
Personal information
Full name	John Michael Walton
Nickname	John Boy
Date of birth	November 10, 1961 (age 45)
Place of birth	Bradford,
Home town	Sheffield,
Darts information
Playing darts since	From the age of 9.
Darts	18g (handmade).
Organisation
BDO	since 1993
Current World Ranking	15 (WDF)
BDO Grand Slam Events - Best Performances
World Ch'ship	Winner 2001
World Masters	Winner 2000
World Darts Trophy	QF 2005
Int. Darts League	2nd Rd 2005
Other Tournament Wins
Tournament	Years
World Cup Champions Team British Open Scottish Open British Classic Belgium Open Portland Open Welsh Open Cheshire Open Yorkshire Classic Europen Grand Prix British Pentathlon	2001 2001 2001 2001 2001 2001 2000 2000 2004 2002 2002, 2006
Other Achievements
2001 BDO Sports Personality of the year Only third player in history to win the World Masters and the World Championship in the same season Record holder for most BDO World Ranking points scored in a year (2001) Record holder for the most legs won without reply (14 legs v Marko Pusa, World Championships, 2001)
Infobox last updated on: March 6, 2007.

John Michael Walton (born November 10, 1961 in Bradford, Yorkshire) is a English darts player who is a former World Champion. He has adopted the nickname John Boy and uses the tune Cotton Eye Joe by Rednex as his walk-on theme.

Walton picked up some small tournament victories in the early stages of his career, including the Websters 150 Championship in 1993 and the Highlands Open Championship in 1996 but didn't manage to qualify for the World Championship until 1999 when he lost 0-3 to Roland Scholten on his first round debut.

He failed to qualify for the World Championship in 2000, but in the autumn of that year he won the prestigious Winmau World Masters. Despite that success, he was 50/1 with the bookmakers to win the World title in the New Year, and his Masters form possibly led to him being tipped by darts pundit Bobby George at the start of the BBC televised coverage as a possible winner.

He opened his 2001 campaign with a 3-1 first round win over Richie Davies and averaged an excellent 100.62 during the match. He then beat Mervyn King 3-0 with another high average of 99.00. His quarter-final victory over Marko Pusa saw Walton achieve an incredible 14 consecutive legs, which still stands as a record in either version of the World Championship. Not surprisingly, the result was a 5-0 whitewash.

Walton then beat Wayne Mardle 5-3 in the semi-final and Ted Hankey 6-2 in the final to become World Champion and also one of only a few players to have held both the Winmau World Masters and World Championship simultaneously. He joined Eric Bristow and Richie Burnett as the third player to win them in the same season.

He has enjoyed only moderate success since his 2001 World Championship victory - the defence of his title ended with a second round loss to Colin Monk and he went out in the second round to Richie Davies in 2003. He did manage to reach the 2004 quarter-finals, but lost 1-5 to Raymond van Barneveld. In 2005 he lost to Darryl Fitton in the second round and he was knocked out by Stephen Roberts in 2006. Another second round defeat, this time to Gary Robson followed in 2007.

He hasn't won any of the major open events since his successful year in 2001 when he took the British Open, British Classic, Belgium Open, Scottish Open and Portland Open. Overall his tournament success has dried up since winning the world title, but he continues to maintain a high world ranking by progressing to the quarter-final and semi-final stages of several Open darts events.