Mark Hylton (born 30 May 1966 from

Rugeley Rugeley ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Cannock Chase District in Staffordshire, England. It lies on the north-eastern edge of Cannock Chase next to the River Trent; it is situated north of Lichfield, south-east of Stafford, nort ...

) is a former

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

professional

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

player. He played 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 World ...

events.

Career

Hylton has played darts for over 30 years. He has played super league for many years and earned over 80 caps for Staffordshire. In 1997, he reached the last 16 of the inaugural British Classic (losing to Phil Taylor). In 2005, he was the Staffordshire qualifier for the World Championship play-offs as well as the

Winmau World Masters The World Masters is one of the longest-running and most prestigious of the BDO/WDF tournaments, which began in 1974. The tournament is sponsored by darts board manufacturer, Winmau. The World Masters was unusual in darts in that its sets are th ...

and the English national singles, where he reached the last 16 again. Hylton's first televised appearance came as an amateur qualifier at the

2007 UK Open The 2007 Blue Square UK Open was the fifth year of the PDC's UK Open darts tournament where, following numerous regional qualifying heats throughout Britain, players competed in a single elimination tournament to be crowned champion. The tourname ...

. He defeated Ray Carver on the stage in the preliminary round before losing to Mark Robinson in the first round. He joined the PDC circuit full-time in 2010. Despite failing to qualify for that year's UK Open, he reached the final of a

PDC Pro Tour The PDC Pro Tour is a series of non-televised darts tournaments organised by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). They comprise Professional Dart Players Association (PDPA) Players Championships and European Tour events. Only four players ...

event in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, losing to

Dennis Priestley Dennis Priestley (born 16 July 1950) is an English former professional darts player. He has won two world championships, and was the first player to win both the BDO and WDC (now PDC) world championships, in 1991 and 1994 respectively. He is ...

, and has regularly featured in the last 16 places. Alongside his PDC efforts, Hylton has won 13 open competitions in 2010, including the Border Classic. Hylton qualified for the

2010 Grand Slam of Darts The 2010 Daily Mirror Grand Slam of Darts was the fourth staging of the darts tournament, the Grand Slam of Darts organised by the Professional Darts Corporation. The event took place from 13–21 November 2010 at the Wolverhampton Civic Hall, Wo ...

, winning through a strong field of over 250 darters, as one of four ITV Wildcard qualifiers. He lost all three of his group games to Gary Anderson, Mark Webster, and Wayne Jones. Hylton also qualified for his first PDC World Championship in

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

as one of the top 16 non-seeded players from the Players Championship Order of Merit. In the first round, Hylton defeated

Steve Beaton Steve Beaton (born 5 April 1964) is an English professional darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He won the BDO World Darts Championship in 1996 and is a former World No. 1. Background Beaton was born in Co ...

by 3 sets to 2. In the second round, he knocked out number 9 seed

Colin Lloyd Colin Edward Lloyd (born 7 August 1973), nicknamed Jaws, is an English retired professional darts player. He is a former world number one ranked player and has won two major television titles in the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) – the ...

by 4 sets to 2. He was eliminated by Mark Webster in the third round. These strong TV performances along with Hylton's strong second half of the season also earned him the 2010 PDC Best Newcomer award. 2011 has seen a strong start with Hylton taking several open titles including The Double16.com Cotgrave & Newark Opens during the 2nd of which he produced a perfect 9 dart leg, only 6 days later he produced another 9 dart finish during an Open event at The Red Lion in Erdington. A first professional appearance in The UK Open in June will be a 3rd TV Major in 8 months. He is climbing the Orders of Merit strongly looking to be well placed for the 2011/12 season. During May & June 2011 Hylton produced another fine spell of form, he reached Pro tour Quarter and Semi finals on consecutive days in Austria and a run of five wins (over Brian Woods, Geoff Whitworth, Andy Jenkins, Andrew Gilding & Peter Wright) at The UK Open saw 'Mile High' reach his first televised Quarter final at a major event, eventually losing out in a tough match again Denis Ovens. This form continued with a semi-final Pro Tour place in Barnsley, defeating Beaton, Ovens, Baxter, Van Gerwen & Duo before losing out to lakeside runner up Dave Chisnal. This ensured his place in the 2011 World Matchplay where he faced Phil Taylor in the first round, narrowly losing by 10 legs to 8. His rapid rise through the ranking continued with qualification for The 2011 World Grand Prix where despite suffering from the flu he again reached the Qtr final. A two sets to one win over Mark Walsh in round one followed by a second round 3–1 win over world number 5 Simon Whitlock, set up a clash with the resurgent Richie Burnett. Hylton bowed out 1–4 with Burnett going on to a 5–2 defeat to Phil Taylor. In a break from previous pattern Hylton took his form straight back to PDC Pro Tour events where he reached semi and quarter-finals over the next two events. His wins over Wayne Jones and a 6-0 whitewash of Paul Nicholson offer signs of a new confidence. He was defeated in the first round of the 2012 World Championships by

Vincent van der Voort Vincent van der Voort (born 18 December 1975) is a Dutch professional darts player on the PDC circuit. As of the 2012 PDC World Darts Championship, his nickname is the "Dutch Destroyer", although he used to go by "Grease Lightning". He is bes ...

2–3. Hylton lost 7–9 in the last 32 of the

2012 UK Open The 2012 Speedy Hire UK Open was a Darts tournament staged in the UK by the Professional Darts Corporation. It was the tenth year of the tournament where, following numerous regional qualifying heats throughout Britain, players competed in a sin ...

Jamie Caven Jamie Robert Caven (born 10 March 1976) is an English former professional darts player who plays in British Darts Organisation (BDO) events. He has won seven events on the PDC Pro Tour, including two in the same weekend in May 2013. Caven was a ...

. On the 2012 Pro Tour, his best results were quarter-final defeats in the UK Open Qualifier 8 (4–6 to Joe Cullen) and the 10th Players Championship (4–6 to

Andy Hamilton Andrew Neil Hamilton (born 28 May 1954) is a British comedian, game show panellist, television director, comedy screenwriter, radio dramatist, novelist and actor. Early life and education Hamilton was born in Fulham, southwest London. He ...

). His results were not enough to see him qualify for the 2013 World Championship through the Pro Tour Order of Merit so he played in the

Qualifier In linguistics, a modifier is an optional element in phrase structure or clause structure which ''modifies'' the meaning of another element in the structure. For instance, the adjective "red" acts as a modifier in the noun phrase "red ball", provi ...

and lost in the last 16 to

Stuart Kellett Stuart Kellett (born 12 August 1981) is a former English darts player. BDO career Kellett reached the last 16 of the 2007 Winmau World Masters, having beaten Andy Fordham among others on the way to the televised stages. He lost 1-3 in sets t ...

. After the World Championship Hylton was ranked world number 37. Hylton failed to qualify for the

2013 UK Open The 2013 Speedy Services UK Open was a darts tournament staged by the Professional Darts Corporation. It was the eleventh year of the UK Open tournament where, following numerous regional qualifying heats throughout Britain, players competed in a ...

as he finished 115th on the Order of Merit, outside of the top 96 who claimed their places. He played the full schedule of PDC events but only reached the last 32 of one tournament where he lost 6–3 to

Kim Huybrechts Kim Huybrechts (born 16 November 1985) is a Belgian professional darts player currently playing in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He made the final of a major TV event, the 2012 Players Championship Finals, losing to Phil Taylor 13 ...

. Hylton finished a lowly 114th on the ProTour Order of Merit having earned £2,400 in prize money during the whole year. He dropped 48 places on the main Order of Merit during the year to start 2014 as world number 85, outside the top 64 who retain their professional status. Hylton entered Q School in an attempt to win his place back and came closest to doing so on the first day when he was beaten 5–4 by

Joey ten Berge Joey ten Berge (born 18 October 1985) is a Dutch former darts player. Career BDO Ten Berge won the 2001 WDF Europe Youth Cup beating Sweden's Markus Korhonen in the final. Six years later, he captured his first professional title by capturing ...

in the last 16. However, after all four days had been completed he had not won enough games to qualify through the Order of Merit and just had PDPA Associate Member status for 2014 which enabled him to play in all UK Open and European Tour qualifiers as well as the Challenge Tour. Hylton qualified for the

UK Open The Cazoo UK Open is a ranking major darts tournament held annually at the Butlins Minehead Resort by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) in England. Often referred to as the "FA Cup of darts", the UK Open replicates the abolition of seedin ...

but lost 5–1 to Dennis Smith in the first round. He played in 10 of the 16

Challenge Tour The Challenge Tour is the second-tier men's professional golf tour in Europe. It is operated by the PGA European Tour and, as with on the main European Tour and the European Senior Tour, some of the events are played outside Europe. History The ...

tournaments, reaching the semi-finals of the 11th event where he was defeated 5–4 by

Mark Frost Mark Frost (born November 25, 1953) is an American novelist, screenwriter, film-and-television producer and director. He is the co-creator of the mystery television series ''Twin Peaks'' (1990–1991; 2017) and was a writer and executive story ...

. Hylton was knocked out in the quarter-finals of two

events in 2015 and got to the semi-finals of the fifth event in

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

and lost 5–2 to

Nick Fullwell Nick Fullwell (born 6 June 1969 in Wolverhampton) is an English professional darts player who plays for the Professional Darts Corporation events. Career Fullwell joined the PDC circuit in 2005 and narrowly missed out qualifying for the Wo ...

. Hylton Quit on the PDC in 2017.

World Championship results

PDC

*2011: Third round (lost to Mark Webster 1–4) *2012: First round (lost to

2–3)

Personal life

Hylton worked as an airline cabin manager for 14 years before taking redundancy and becoming a professional darts player in 2010. He graduated from Wrexham University in 1987 as a BA in English Literature. Hylton‘s son is professional comedian Alex Hylton, who won ‘Best Show’ at

Leicester Comedy Festival The Leicester Comedy Festival is an annual comedy festival held in a number of venues across Leicester, England early in the year. History The festival started in 1994 with 40 events in 23 venues over 7 days throughout Leicestershire, attracting ...

in 2020. Hylton supports Sky Bet Championship football club

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...

. He also played cricket at an amateur level as a teenager.

References

External links

*
Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hylton, Mark 1966 births Living people English darts players Professional Darts Corporation former tour card holders