Haemophilia and arthritis haven't stopped Tony David from becoming an international darts champion. Rod Hermeston goes down under to hear his story

Tony David takes it well when I drag him away from his girlfriend to do an interview at 10.30pm Australian time.

The drawling voice at the end of the phone shows elation at his recent success. Tony, who has haemophilia and arthritis, has just won the Embassy World Professional Darts Championship, beating the best players in the world.

He is the first Aussie to win the tournament in its 25-year history, and certainly the first disabled person.

"I'm still over the moon," he says. "I haven't come back down to earth. It is a very difficult tournament to have won."

It is only nine years since Tony, 34, from Townsville in Queensland, first stepped up to the oche.

And his success could not have been predicted. His parents were told that children with Tony's condition did not survive. His mother was open with him.

"She told me I would probably be in a wheelchair by the age of 12 and that I might not live beyond 17. I knew that from about age five."

As a child, he needed five operations on his knee to reduce internal bleeding in the joint. He needed 13 bags of blood and it left him with a limp. He cannot straighten one of his arms.

It was not long before new blood-clotting drugs came along to help. But life could still be unpleasant. He recalls kicking and screaming when given injections during a hospital stay, and he eventually needed hypnotherapy to help him cope.

His childhood was tough for his parents too. His brother also has haemophilia, and there was a temptation for them to wrap the children in cotton wool. There were frequent hospital stays.

Despite the difficulties, he feels that having haemophilia has shaped his personality. Strangely, he says: "To a certain extent, my blood disorder has made me what I am today. And it is probably a better me."

For instance, he was bullied at school but knew he could not retaliate. It taught him to find different strategies.

Tony is a bit unusual in the darts-playing world in other ways. He went to university where he first did teacher training before converting to a Bachelor of Arts.

He admits that he didn't really want to go to university, and went on to work as a waiter in a casino.

Eventually he had to quit work and take a disability pension. It was while he was sitting about in a local club that three blokes asked him to make up the numbers in a darts match. He scored one hundred on his first try.

The other men thought he was pulling their legs when he said he had never played before. But they soon realised he didn't have a clue about the scoring and tactics. It was natural talent.

By 1996, he was number one in Australia. And in January this year, he took the Embassy, beating Mervyn King of England 6-4.

The stats are impressive. Tony scored the highest number of 100-plus scores in the whole championship; 26 of them were 180s. It earned him a £48,000 prize.

He had to prepare for the matches with regular injections.

"If I have a bleed in my right knee, I'm not able to stand up for long periods of time. If I have a bleed in my right arm, I cannot throw the darts. I have to look after myself."

He's chuffed to bits with his achievement, which wowed the British audience.

But nothing can compare to the starry-eyed adulation that he gets from his five-year old son, Alexander, who has been practising darts since he was two-and-a-half. Tony couldn't get his trophy out of Alexander's hands when he brought it home.

"He's as proud as punch. He carried it about everywhere we went the other weekend. He said to me: 'When I'm big enough I'm going to win it, daddy.'"

His girlfriend Natalie, who he has been seeing since November 2000, is chuffed too, and is behind him 100 per cent. After all, she is woman's darts number one in Australia.

But victory has its own problems. While he has just heard that his disability pension will not be affected by his prize money, he is still waiting to see if the taxman is as generous. As it is, British taxes snapped up 20 per cent of his winnings.

But financial headaches aside, he doesn't have many complaints.

He will be back at the Embassy championships next year to defend his title. And I certainly wouldn't bet against him.

Posted: 4 Mar, 2002