Simon Whitlock

Simon Whitlock (born 3 March 1969) is an Australian professional darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation tournaments, having also played in the British Darts Organisation between 2004-2009. He uses the nickname The Wizard for his matches. His walk-on music is Down Under by Men At Work.

His greatest achievement to date was winning his first major title at the 2012 European Championship. Whitlock has also finished runner-up at the 2008 BDO World Darts Championship and the 2010 PDC World Darts Championship. He claimed that the prize money gained from the latter tournament which included money for the highest checkout (joint with Phil Taylor) would allow him to move over to the UK from Australia and compete on the PDC Pro Tour. His defeat also made him the first, and so far only, player to have never won a World Championship after reaching both the BDO and PDC World Championship Final.

Early darts career

He reached the last 16 of the 2003 PDC World Darts Championship and also the semi-finals of the 2005 BDO World Darts Championship but lost heavily 0–5 to Martin Adams. In other events, he has also reached the semi-finals of the International Darts League in 2005 (losing to Mervyn King) and 2006 (losing to Raymond van Barneveld).

Andy Hamilton (darts player)

Andy Hamilton (born 16 March 1967 in Stoke-on-Trent) is an English professional darts player. He is nicknamed The Hammer. He reached the final of the 2012 PDC World Darts Championship, losing to defending champion Adrian Lewis in the final.

Career

Early career

Hamilton started playing darts at the age of 14 with his father Jim and brother Darren. By the age of 18, Hamilton was playing county level darts for Cheshire. However, he did not feel confident enough to pursue a career at the higher level and stopped playing competitive darts for 20 years.

2004

Hamilton made his television debut at the 2004 UK Open but was eliminated in the first round 5–2 by Eddie Lovely. His first semi-final on the PDC Pro Tour came in just his fourth event when he was beaten 3–2 by Mark Dudbridge in a Scottish Players Championship.

2005

Hamilton qualified for the PDC World Championship for the first time in 2005 and made an immediate impact by reaching the quarter-final stage. Hamilton defeated Mark Thomson and Mick Manning 3–0 in the early rounds and beat former BDO World Champion Steve Beaton 4–2 to reach the last 16. After beating Josephus Schenk 4–1 in the fourth round, Hamilton eventually lost 5–1 to Bob Anderson. He overcame Wes Newton and Mark Robinson to reach the last 32 of the UK Open, but was beaten 11–4 by Mark Walsh. He also qualified for the Las Vegas Desert Classic for the first time where Darin Young defeated him 2–0 in the opening round.