Tony David

Tony David (born 11 September 1967 in Townsville, Queensland)^[1] is a darts player and is the only Australian player to have been a senior singles world champion, having won the 2002 Embassy World Championship. He plays under the nickname The Deadly Boomerang.

Career

David started playing darts at the age of 25 and progressed into the Queensland State team in 1995. Four years later, he made the Australian WDF World Cup team for the first time.

He made his first trip to the Lakeside Country Club in 2001 to play in the Embassy World Championship, losing to Andy Fordham 0-3 in the first round.

The following year, in 2002, he qualified for his second attempt at the World Championship. Despite being a 66/1 outsider before the tournament began, he went all the way to the final, beating Ritchie Davies, Marko Pusa, Bob Taylor before winning a tight semi-final against Martin Adams 5-4. He was the slight favourite for the title going into the final due to his results, and went on to beat Mervyn King 6-4 in the final. He became the first Australian player to win a World Professional Darts Championship.

Later in 2002, he won the World Darts Trophy in the Netherlands, one of the British Darts Organisation's other Grand Slam titles. He also reached the semi-finals of the WDT in 2003 and 2004 losing both times to Raymond van Barneveld.

The defence of his world title in 2003 started creditably, but ended with a heavy loss 0-5 at the quarter-final stages to Davies. After that defeat, David has failed to win another match at the Lakeside event. He went out in the first round in 2004 to Darryl Fitton and in 2005 to Tony Eccles. He failed to qualify for the 2006 or 2007 events. He returned to Lakeside in 2008 but lost in the first round to Gary Robson.

Health problems

David has haemophilia, which requires regular medication. On top of this, his throwing action is slightly limited by the condition, as he cannot bring his arm back as far as most players due to the blood circulation.

On 21 February 2009, David was rushed to hospital to undergo an emergency liver transplant. However, the transplant was a successful one and David is progressing well.

Whilst an 'emergency' generally relates to unforeseen circumstances, David was on the Liver Transplant Waiting List due to complications from Hepatitis C and B which he contracted many years ago in the 80s (as many haemophiliacs did prior to better blood screening practices in Australia), and was fortunate to have a matching donor liver become available - requiring his attendance at hospital ASAP as is required for such a procedure.

On 7 December, David was rushed into hospital for an operation on his spleen. The operation was deemed to be a success. David's close friend Allan Summers said on Bdoforums.co.uk that he is "improving day by day from his latest operation, however, it would be some time before he would be allowed back home to continue his ongoing treatment".

Personal life

David married his long-time partner, Natalie Carter, on 20 November 2010 in Perth, Western Australia.

World Championship Results

BDO

• 2001: 1st round (lost to Andy Fordham 0-3)
• 2002: Winner (beat Mervyn King 6-4)
• 2003: Quarter-final (lost to Ritchie Davies 0-5)
• 2004: 1st round (lost to Darryl Fitton 2-3)
• 2005: 1st round (lost to Tony Eccles 2-3)
• 2008: 1st round (lost to Gary Robson 1-3)

References

External links

• Stats from Darts Database