Andy “The Hammer” Hamilton.

Andy is yet another superstar darts player from the Midlands as he was born in Stoke-on-Trent in 1967. He took up darts at a relatively early age and he soon made a name for himself, but after representing Cheshire County when he was 18 years old he played for just 2 more years and then quit the sport believing he lacked the talent to sustain a professional career.

Almost 20 years later Andy rekindled the spark and made his television debut at the 2004 UK Open. Later that same year veteran campaigner Bob Anderson knocked out Andy in the quarter-finals when “The Hammer” made his World Championship debut.

In both the 2006 and 2007 World Championship Andy played against Phil Taylor who beat him. In fact Andy has never beaten Taylor competitively. The Hammer was Taylor’s practice partner for a while, but even in practice Taylor was too competitive and it was getting at Andy’s confidence. It is perhaps a little unfortunate then that Andy has met Taylor again in a competition. This time in the final of the new Darts Grand Slam that was held at the Wolverhampton Civic Centre.

Hamilton has never had a 9 darter in a serious competition, but he certainly has to be ranked up there with the best of them after his performance in the Grand Slam. Andy had unlucky 13 X 180’s in the match against Phil Taylor’s 7 and both players averaged about 104 in the final with Andy averaging just under 100 over the whole competition.

Up until the 12^th leg the games were going with the darts then Taylor roared away taking a total of 9 straight legs making the score-line 14-5. Andy took the next leg making it 14-6 and then it was nip and tuck with Taylor giving a couple of chances away and all credit to Andy, “The Hammer” took advantage of them. Taylor went on to take another 4 legs while Andy took 5, but Taylor struggled to put the last one up with Andy fighting all the way.

The First Prize was £80,000 which of course went to Phil Taylor as he was the first to win 18 legs, but Andy The Hammer Hamilton still took a very acceptable second prize of £35,000. This was a little different to the winning prize at the Lichfield Open that he walked away with in August earlier this year. (see Rugeley Darts League Articles.) (There is also an interview with Andy on the darts babes @ http://www.dartsbabesontour.co.uk/interviews.php )