Young darts sensation Henry Coates hits the mark with PDC win

A darts sensation who says he began playing in nappies aged two has made the history books by becoming only the fifth player to win a Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) ranking title without holding a tour card.

Henry Coates, 20, from Matlock in Derbyshire, who started throwing at a magnetic board as a toddler, said it was an "achievement just to even play" in July's Players Championship 25.

It meant Coates was a reserve player who got a chance to compete because spaces were available - similar to a wildcard entry in tennis.

He said: "I started getting further and further into the tournament - I just I thought there's no pressure on me and yeah, I just kept playing and kept playing well."

Having a tour card in darts means players have an official licence or membership, which allows the player to compete directly on the professional circuit.

In the PDC, there are only 128 tour cards available at any given time.

Coates said he believed if he qualified for the World Championships this December, won two games and relied on favourable rankings around him, he should be handed his tour card.

He added: "[Playing darts] is awesome because the way I think of it, if you're doing a job that you enjoy, it's not really work is it?"

Being from a fifth generation family of butchers, with a shop in Darley Dale, Coates said "it went hand in hand".

Away from darts, he now works part-time in the shop but perhaps sensibly, Coates said he kept his hands away from the meat cleavers.

A friend of Coates's older brother bought him a magnetic dartboard when he was aged two.

By the time he turned three, all he wanted for Christmas was a proper board and a set of darts. Hundreds of holes in the wall later, the rest is history.

"I was so young but from the stories that my mum and dad have told me, I was running around in a nappy not wanting to stop," he said.

"They just thought that it was a bit of fun and then my dad always played in the local pub league, so I think it went from there with my dad really.

"I was just in the pub playing darts too so from then on, I think people recognise that I might have something."

As he got older, Coates started to beat fully-grown men as a child at the age of eight when he joined the pub league.

He soon made it on to the radar of professional player Jamie Cavan, with Coates joining his junior darts academy in Derby.

On playing and beating adults as a boy, Coates added that had helped him step up in the professional game.

"I've had all the older players, they try to beat you and get in your head," he said.

"I've learned to deal with and come out on top. I think when I first started playing in the pub at the league, I was eight so it wasn't always great for them.

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