John Kramer (darts player)

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John Kramer
Personal information
Full name	John (JK) Kramer
Nickname	JK
Date of birth	December 15, 1956
Place of birth	Camp LeJeune, North Carolina, U.S.
Home town	Laguna Niguel, California, U.S.
Darts information
Playing darts since	1975
Darts	custom made 21g from www.tylermadedarts.co.uk
Walk-on music	{{{music}}}
Organisation (see split in darts)
Current World Ranking	122 (WDF)

John Kramer is an American professional darts player.

1 Before Darts
2 Darts Success
3 Retirement & Resurgence
4 Tournament Results

[edit] Before Darts

John Kramer started playing darts in 1974 in the weight room at his high school while recovering from a knee injury sustained during a high school football game. John quickly discovered he had a knack for the game and played his first professional tournament in Ventura, California the weekend after graduation in 1975.

[edit] Darts Success

John enjoyed much success during his playing days from 1975 through 1987, including his first North American Open singles title, where he defeated world #3 ranked player, Jocky Wilson in the semi-final and the #1 player in the world at that time, Eric Bristow in the final. In 1982 he competed in the 1982 World Darts Championship but was defeated by the English darts player Tony Brown in the first round. His national ranking in 1985 earned him a post on the US World Cup team to compete in Brisbane, Australia. The US won the team gold medal at World Cup V, which saw them defeat the English team 9-0, before going on to defeat the Australian team to win the gold medal. The US team also brought home the Silver medal for their 2nd place finish overall. 1985 brought John to the US#1 ranking and his first Bulls-Eye News magazine cover.

[edit] Retirement & Resurgence

1987 was when he first retired from the game due to personal reasons (aka Stephanie) and John enjoyed his spare time playing tournament and league softball.

1999 saw a resurgence of John’s darting career after a 12-year absence, where he enjoyed many successes, including a second North American Open singles title (defeating US player Roger Carter), being part of the rare accomplishment of winning both Open Doubles events at the Las Vegas Open (with Chris White) in 2001, and a second Bulls-Eye News magazine cover.

2002 brought on a second retirement from darts and his venture into tournament paintball.

2006 has brought on another resurgence into darts. Enjoying more success at events such as the Wild West Shootout and the San Francisco Open with Open Cricket singles titles for both.

2007 added some semi-final and finals, but the quest for the perfect dart showed in the finishes. Alas, that has finally been achieved thanks to Tylermade darts.

John now looks forward to more success in 2008 with a new set of 21G custom darts from Tylermade darts (www.tylermadedarts.co.uk) that he likes to call "the Supergrips"....and many exciting new darting events on the horizon. Stay tuned….

[edit] Tournament Results

1980-2006	TOURNAMENTS	NOTABLE SINGLES FINISHES
MONTH	TOURNAMENT	FINISH
	1981
AUGUST	NORTH AMERICAN OPEN	SINGLES CHAMPION
NOVEMBER	TRI-COUNTIES CUP	SINGLES CHAMPION
DECEMBER	A.D.O. REGION II	CHAMPION
	A.D.O. NATIONAL	SECOND PLACE
	1982
OCTOBER	WEST COAST MASTERS	SINGLES CHAMPION
	OKTOBERFEST	SINGLES CHAMPION
DECEMBER	SAN DIEGO OPEN	SINGLES CHAMPION
	1983
MARCH	DARTS FOR DIABETES	SINGLES CHAMPION
OCTOBER	AUTUMN DART FESTIVAL	SINGLES CHAMPION
	1984
APRIL	FOOTHILL OPEN	SINGLES CHAMPION
JULY	COLORADO OPEN	TEAM FINALIST
AUGUST	LOS ANGELES OPEN	SINGLES CHAMPION
DECEMBER	BRITISH OPEN	OPEN SINGLES-17TH PLACE
DECEMBER	A.D.O. REGION II-3	THIRD PLACE
	A.D.O. NATIONAL	TENTH PLACE
	1985
MARCH	NEW MEXICO OPEN	SINGLES CHAMPION
APRIL	BAKERSFIELD OPEN	SINGLES CHAMPION
MAY	DALLAS OPEN	SINGLES CHAMPION
JULY	COLORADO OPEN	SINGLES CHAMPION
JULY	MARQUISE WARM-UP	501 SINGLES CHAMPION
AUGUST	PEACHTREE OPEN	SINGLES CHAMPION
NOVEMBER	OLD PUEBLO CLASSIC	CRICKET SINGLES CHAMPION
DECEMBER	ADO REGION II-3	FIRST PLACE
	ADO NATIONAL	FIRST PLACE
	1999
AUGUST	NORTH AMERICAN OPEN	SINGLES CHAMPION
	2001
APRIL	CHARLOTTE OPEN	CRICKET SINGLES CHAMPION
	2006
MAY	WILD WEST SHOOTOUT	CRICKET SINGLES CHAMPION
AUGUST	RHADT TOURNAMENT	SINGLES CHAMPION
SEPTEMBER	SAN FRANCISCO OPEN	CRICKET SINGLES CHAMPION