Dedicated player No.1 junior Australian

Port Kennedy’s Tyler Sutherland has proven he’s up there with the very best in Australian darts after the 17-year-old recently returned home from the Darts Australia Junior Championships as the Australian No.1.

Held in Westbury, Tasmania in mid-January, Tyler represented the West Australian darts team and turned on the style as he became the junior Australian singles champion. Throughout the competition, Tyler took part in several games which saw him come second in the Roy Christopher fours, equal third in the boy’s doubles alongside Alex McAvoy, second in the mixed doubles with Jayde Baird and take out the top spot in the Australian singles.

With a strong lineage of darts running in the family, Tyler said he began playing at the age of 13 and hadn’t looked back since.

“My family plays; my dad, nan and brother — they needed a spare player one day, so I just went down and started playing,” he said.

“I picked it up pretty quickly. As soon as I started playing, I was loving it and kept on playing.”

To be among the nation’s finest young darts players, Tyler practises every day for about an hour, as well as playing on Tuesday and Thursday nights at the Warnbro Bowling Club and the George n’ Dragon Tavern in Shoalwater.

He said Darts WA president Betty Hislop had been a strong mentor for him, offering her extensive knowledge.

Tyler said he hoped one day to make the men’s State team, then the Australian team.