Mark Salmon (born 23 February 1963 in

Pontypridd () ( colloquially: Ponty) is a town and a community in Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. Geography comprises the electoral wards of , Hawthorn, Pontypridd Town, 'Rhondda', Rhydyfelin Central/Ilan ( Rhydfelen), Trallwng ( Trallwn) and Treforest (). ...

) is a former Welsh professional

darts Darts or dart-throwing is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small sharp-pointed missiles known as darts at a round target known as a dartboard. Points can be scored by hitting specific marked areas of the bo ...

player who competed in both the

British Darts Organisation The British Darts Organisation (BDO) was a darts organisation founded on 7 January 1973 by Olly Croft. Made up of 66 member counties, it oversaw professional, semi-professional and amateur darts competitions in Britain. The BDO was a founder ...

and Professional Darts Corporation circuits. Salmon was inspired to play darts by

Leighton Rees Leighton Thomas Rees (17 January 1940 – 8 June 2003) was a Welsh professional darts player. He is best known as the first BDO World Professional Darts Champion, having won the inaugural 1978 BDO World Darts Championship and was a former Wor ...

, the first World Champion and played with flights bearing Leighton's face in his honour.

Career

Salmon played in the

1996 BDO World Darts Championship The 1996 Embassy World Professional Darts Championship was held from 1–7 January 1996 at the Lakeside Country Club in Frimley Green, Surrey and was won by the number six seed Steve Beaton. Beaton, who suffered a first round loss in the ...

, losing in the first round 3–0 to Roland Scholten. A month later, Salmon won the Scottish Open, beating fellow Welshman

Sean Palfrey Sean, also spelled Seán or Séan in Irish English, is a male given name of Irish origin. It comes from the Irish versions of the Biblical Hebrew name ''Yohanan'' (), Seán (anglicized as ''Shaun/Shawn/ Shon'') and Séan (Ulster variant; angliciz ...

in the final. Salmon never progressed further in the BDO and in 2005 he began playing in PDC where he qualified for the

2006 PDC World Darts Championship The 2006 Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship was the 13th World Championship organised by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) since it separated from the British Darts Organisation (BDO). It was held from 19 December 2005 to 2 January ...

, beating Rod Harrington and Owen Caffrey to qualify. He was beaten in the first round 3–2 by Dennis Smith. Salmon struggled on the PDC circuit, failing to qualify for the UK Open and the World Matchplay. After failing to qualify for the 2007 World Championship, Salmon moved back to the BDO and qualified for the

2009 BDO World Darts Championship The 2009 Lakeside World Professional Darts Championship was the 32nd World Championship organised by the British Darts Organisation. Mark Webster was the defending men's champion having won the title for the first time in the 2008 final against ...

, taking one of the non-seeded places. He was drawn against

Darryl Fitton Darryl Fitton (born 5 May 1962) is an English professional darts player. He is nicknamed The Dazzler and comes to the stage dancing to the Madness song " One Step Beyond" wearing sunglasses; one of the most popular walk-ons with the audienc ...

in the first round and lost all nine legs in a 3–0 defeat.

World Championship Results

BDO

* 1996: 1st Round (lost to Roland Scholten 0–3) * 2009: 1st Round (lost to

0–3)

PDC

* 2006: 1st Round (lost to Dennis Smith 2–3)

External links

Profile and stats on Darts Database
1963 births Living people Welsh darts players Professional Darts Corporation associate players British Darts Organisation players {{UK-darts-bio-stub