I’ve won hundreds of thousands of pounds as a darts star but I still kept my part-time job as a plasterer for years
DARTS star Jonny Clayton once refused to become a full-time player so he could keep his job in plastering.
The 48-year-old burst onto the scene in 2015 and has since won 12 titles.
But despite his incredible success, he only recently gave up his day job.
Throughout his career, Clayton was determined to keep his job as a plasterer even though he was earning a large amount of prize money from darts.
In 2021, he claimed over £400,000 from the sport, and today he is valued at £537,250 by the Professional Darts Corporation.
But in an interview with The Daily Star last year, the Welshman revealed that he was “too scared” to quit his job in plastering.
He said: “I would be a liar to say I have not considered it. But in a way, I am scared to give up my job, because things are working for me at the moment. I have not changed anything and I am doing well.
“I do not know what would happen if I finished my work and concentrated on my darts.
“If things went wrong, I don’t know how I’d take that.
“At the moment, I would be a liar to say I haven’t thought about quitting my job, but I am not going to at the moment because I just feel that things are working for me.
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“I have always played the game darts while working so I am not changing that at the minute and I don’t plan to anytime soon.”
Clayton finally decided to hang up his plastering trowel in June 2022 after speaking to Carmarthenshire County Council.
At the time, he revealed: “I’ve basically taken five months off work already this year, and as the Premier League season comes to an end, my time as a plasterer is probably coming to an end, too.
“My bosses at Carmarthenshire county council have been incredibly fair to me, allowing me to fit the day job around playing darts. But now it’s time for me to return to their kindness.
“I can’t keep going to them to ask for time off, and they can’t keep bending over backwards to accommodate one employee.
“The plan is for me to carry on until December, but from the end of the year I’m going to try and be a professional darts player full-time.
“After that, the tools will be staying in the van. It will be hard to say goodbye to a trade that has sustained me all my working life.
“But I’ve reached the stage now where it’s become too hard to maintain a balance between darts and a nine-to-five job.”