A plasterer on the fast path to becoming a millionaire
After winning the final in Amsterdam this year, Jonny Clayton pocketed a total of 575,000 euros in prize money
Source: pa / Action Plus / Shaun Brooks
Jonny Clayton’s professional career is skyrocketing. The Welshman has now also won the darts final of the World Series in Amsterdam. But he doesn’t want to give up his job, which is not particularly well paid.
Vor almost exactly a year ago, darts pro Jonny Clayton made an interesting remark. The Welshman also works full-time, he is a plasterer for the Carmarthenshire City Council.
So, just quitting your job just to play darts? That is not yet imaginable, he clarified. He loves his work, and he also quickly gets bored, he once said, “the job as a plasterer distracts me from the sport of darts”. He also has “a young family and I want everything to be right before I make this decision. I think I have to win a major before that decision is made. ”
If you look at the darts year 2021, the description “everything is right” for the 47-year-old is an understatement. Clayton has successively won the Masters, the Premier League, the World Grand Prix and, late on Sunday evening, the World Series final. The associated prize money: 70,000 euros, 295,000 euros, 130,000 euros and now after the 11: 6 victory in the final against Belgian Dimitri van den Bergh: a little more than 80,000 euros.
How Clayton got his nickname
If he now competes in the tournaments, he takes unpaid leave. He is called “The Ferret” on the tour, which means the ferret, which comes from his time as a rugby player. After moving from youth to senior citizens’ camp, he always dived for the ball, he said, “as if I were a ferret. That then got stuck ”.
Clayton has been playing darts since 2008 and has been a professional since 2015. What started a bit slowly and turned out to be rather changeable and not particularly promising, is now growing more and more into a success story. Without a doubt, one that can support his wife Elen and his two children quite well.
In the final of the World Series he won against world number five Dimitri van den Bergh (Belgium) 11: 6. His constancy now distinguishes him. He won against van den Bergh with eight 180s, an average of 101 points and almost 50 percent double quota. In the semifinals, the world number eight had thrown the top seeded Michael van Gerwen (Netherlands) out of the tournament with 11: 6.
“I feel absolutely brilliant, my confidence is as high as heaven right now. I’m a very happy man, ”said Clayton after the title coup in Amsterdam. The list of TV tournament victories this year should also make him very happy. His compatriot and world champion Gerwyn Price has one, van Gerwen none at all – and plasterer Clayton has four.
That leaves the question of continuing the job that has been learned. “It’s a small upkeep, but I still enjoy it. I’ve done it all my life, I don’t see why I should change anything, ”he said recently.
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