Jonny Clayton (born 4 October 1974) is a Welsh professional

darts Darts is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small projectile point, sharp-pointed projectile, projectiles known as dart (missile), darts at a round shooting target, target known as a #Dartboard, dartboard. Point ...

player who competes in

Professional Darts Corporation The Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) is a professional darts organisation in the United Kingdom, established in 1992 when a group of leading players split from the British Darts Organisation (BDO) to form what was initially called the Wor ...

(PDC) events, where he is currently ranked world number five. Nicknamed "the Ferret", he has won four PDC major televised singles titles, all in 2021: the Masters,

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, World Series Finals and World Grand Prix. He has also won the PDC World Cup of Darts on two occasions in

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

and

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, representing

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

alongside

Gerwyn Price Gerwyn Price (born 7 March 1985) is a Welsh professional darts player and former professional rugby union and rugby league player. He competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he is currently ranked PDC Order of Merit, world ...

. He has won a total of seventeen PDC titles. He has finished as runner-up at the 2017 Players Championship Finals, 2023 World Matchplay and the 2025 World Masters. He is a one-time World Championship quarter-finalist, reaching the last eight at the 2023 PDC World Championship.

Career

2015

Clayton joined the PDC Pro Tour in 2015 after winning a Tour Card on the final day of Qualifying School. His first quarter-final came at the sixth Players Championship event and he lost 6–1 to Benito van de Pas. Clayton qualified for the

Grand Slam of Darts The Grand Slam of Darts is a darts tournament organised by the Professional Darts Corporation and is known as the Mr Vegas Grand Slam of Darts for sponsorship purposes. The PDC used to invite the best performing players from its rival, the Briti ...

later that year, but despite winning his opening match against Terry Jenkins, he went on to finish bottom of his group.

2016

Clayton's first appearance at the UK Open came in the 2016 edition, but he was defeated 6–3 by James Wilson in the second round. Clayton recorded a quarter-final showing at the eighth Players Championship and reached his first semi-final at the 12th event, but was whitewashed 6–0 by Gary Anderson. A 2–0 victory over Tony Darlow saw Clayton claim the non-ranking Worthingtons Darts Champion of Champions title. He lost 6–3 to Darren Webster in round one of the Players Championship Finals.

2017

Clayton made his PDC World Championship debut in the 2017 event, and came from a set down to beat fellow Welshman

3–1 in the first round. He lost 4–1 to Ian White in the second round. Clayton won his first PDC ranking title with Players Championship 22 after beating James Wilson 6–1 in the final. Clayton got to his first PDC major final at the 2017 Players Championship Finals. He beat Jeffrey de Graaf, Price, Stephen Bunting, Steve Beaton and number 1 seed Rob Cross, before losing out to

Michael van Gerwen Michael van Gerwen (; born 25 April 1989) is a Dutch professional darts player, who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where is currently ranked PDC Order of Merit, world number three; he was ranked world number one from 20 ...

2018

His run to the final saw him break into the top 32 of the PDC Order of Merit, meaning that he was a seed at the 2018 PDC World Darts Championship, where he was eliminated by fellow countryman Jamie Lewis. He went on to win the 2018 Austrian Darts Open by defeating

8–5 in the final. This meant that he was the first Welsh winner on the

PDC European Tour The PDC European Tour is a series of darts tournaments held across Europe organized by the Professional Darts Corporation. Starting in 2012 with five events, the number of events has steadily risen with eight held in 2013 and 2014, nine in 2015, 10 ...

2019

Clayton won Players Championship 10 by defeating

Gabriel Clemens Gabriel Clemens (born 16 August 1983) is a German professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He reached the semi-finals at the 2017 World Masters, the 2023 PDC World Championship and the 2023 Player ...

8–4 in the final. This was Jonny's 3rd ranking title.

2020: World Cup Champion

At this point a three-time PDC ranking title winner, Clayton was selected as a 'challenger' for the 2020 Premier League night in

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, but lost 7–1 to an inspired Michael Smith. Clayton kicked off his 2020 season by defeating world number one

10–6 in the opening round of the 2020 Masters. He went on to win the 2020 PDC World Cup of Darts for Wales with

as his teammate, defeating the English side of Rob Cross and Michael Smith 3–0.

2021: First individual major title, Premier League and Grand Prix champion

At the Masters Clayton beat

José de Sousa José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced very differently in each of the two languages: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced ...

, James Wade and Peter Wright en route to the final where he faced Mervyn King. Clayton won the match 11–8 to win his first major individual televised title. In his match against Wade, he was successful in checking out 10 times out of 11 for a success rate of 91%, which the PDC claimed to be a possible world record. He won two Players Championship events, PC4 and PC7 early in 2021. Upon winning the Masters tournament, Clayton was invited to participate in the 2021 Premier League Darts, where on the third night of his debut season he hit a nine-dart finish on the way to beating

. After the fifth evening of league action, Clayton was placed at the top of the league. He slipped to as low as 8th, before going into 4th position for night 16. He had to achieve at least a draw to secure his place in the playoffs. He managed to do so and won his game against Dimitri Van den Bergh winning 8–6. In the playoffs he beat

10–8 in their semi-final. He went on to defeat

11–5 in the final. In doing so he became the first Welsh winner of the Premier League and the first player to finish 4th in the league phase and win the title. Clayton participated in the World Grand Prix in which he reached the final after beating Callan Rydz,

, Krzysztof Ratajski and Danny Noppert along the way. In the final Clayton prevailed over World No. 1

with a 5–1 victory winning him his third major tournament of the year. Three weeks later, Clayton picked up his fourth TV title of the year with an 11–6 victory over Dimitri Van den Bergh in the final of the World Series of Darts Finals.

2022

At the 2022 World Championship, Clayton reached the fourth round where he lost to eventual finalist Michael Smith 4–3. He reached the semi-finals of the Masters but was unable to defend his title, losing 11–6 to runner-up Dave Chisnall. Clayton entered the 2022 Premier League as defending champion and secured qualification for the play-offs following his night 13 win in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

. He finished first in the league phase with four nightly wins. He faced fourth-placed Joe Cullen in the play-off semi-finals and lost 10–4. The Welsh team of Clayton and

reached the final of the World Cup of Darts but were defeated 3–1 by Damon Heta and

Simon Whitlock Simon Whitlock (born 3 March 1969) is an Australian professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, having previously competed in British Darts Organisation (BDO) events. Nicknamed "The Wizard", he won th ...

of Australia. Clayton won his first

World Series of Darts The World Series of Darts is a series of darts tournaments organised by the Professional Darts Corporation. Beginning in 2013, the World Series has comprised between two and seven tournaments across the world, where a mixture of the top-ranked P ...

title at the New South Wales Darts Masters in

Wollongong Wollongong ( ; Dharawal: ''Woolyungah'') is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near water' or 'sound ...

, beating James Wade 8–1 in the final.

2023

At the 2023 World Championship, Clayton whitewashed Danny van Trijp 3–0 in his second-round tie, then defeated Brendan Dolan 4–1 in the third round before beating Josh Rock 4–3 to reach the quarter-finals for the first time in his career. He lost his quarter-final match to Dimitri Van den Bergh 5–3. Clayton was selected for the

following his world championship campaign. He achieved back-to-back nightly wins on night nine and night ten, defeating reigning world champion Michael Smith in the final of night nine before adding another final win over Peter Wright the next week. He qualified for the play-offs by finishing in fourth place in the league phase. This meant he faced league leader

in the play-off semi-finals, who defeated Clayton 10–2. In June, Clayton teamed with Price at the World Cup of Darts, with the Welsh pair winning their second World Cup title after a 10–2 victory over Scotland (Peter Wright and Gary Anderson) in the final. The next month, Clayton reached the final of the World Matchplay but suffered a 18–6 defeat to Nathan Aspinall.

2024

At the 2024 World Championship, Clayton won his second-round match 3–1 against Steve Lennon, then defeated Krzysztof Ratajski before being whitewashed 4–0 by Rob Cross in the fourth round. He reached the final of the Dutch Darts Championship in May, but lost 8–4 to Josh Rock. In July, he won his only title of the year at Players Championship 14 by defeating Wesley Plaisier 8–5 in the final.

2025

Clayton reached the fourth round of the 2025 World Championship, where he was defeated by

4–2. Clayton produced his highest televised three-dart average in his first-round match against Martin Schindler at the World Masters, averaging 112.77 to beat Schindler 3–1 in sets. He reached the final of the tournament, where he faced Luke Humphries. Clayton recovered from 5–2 down to level the match at 5–5, but ultimately lost 6–5 in a deciding leg. He defeated Gary Anderson and Michael Smith en route to the semi-finals of the UK Open, where he lost 11–6 to Luke Littler. This run saw him rise to world number five on the PDC Order of Merit. In May, Clayton won his third European Tour title at the Dutch Darts Championship, earning wins over Danny Noppert in the quarter-finals and Luke Humphries in the semi-finals before defeating Niko Springer 8–6 in the final.

World Championship results

PDC

* 2017: Second round (lost to Ian White 1–4) * 2018: First round (lost to Jamie Lewis 0–3) * 2019: Second round (lost to Dimitri Van den Bergh 1–3) * 2020: Third round (lost to Stephen Bunting 0–4) * 2021: Third round (lost to Joe Cullen 3–4) * 2022: Fourth round (lost to Michael Smith 3–4) * 2023: Quarter-finals (lost to Dimitri Van den Bergh 3–5) * 2024: Fourth round (lost to Rob Cross 0–4) * 2025: Fourth round (lost to

2–4)

Career finals

PDC major finals: 7 (4 titles)

PDC team finals: 4 (2 titles)

PDC World Series finals: 2 (1 title)

Career statistics

Performance timeline

PDC European Tour PDC Players Championships PDC World Series of Darts

Nine-dart finishes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Clayton, Jonny 1974 births Living people Welsh darts players Sportspeople from Llanelli Professional Darts Corporation current tour card holders PDC World Cup of Darts Welsh championship team Masters (darts) champions Premier League Darts champions World Grand Prix (darts) champions World Series of Darts winners Darts players who have thrown televised nine-dart games