Quiet-man Singleton aims to be a giantkiller at the FA Cup of Darts

A former county darts player, Singleton, 46, did not tell anyone he was entering the competition, affectionately known as the ‘FA Cup of Darts’ as he had been out of competitions for so long and was not expecting to qualify.

However, he beat off stiff competition from fellow amateurs at Wolverhampton’s Civic Hall, the first time he played competitively since undergoing a back operation.

Singleton will now take his place on the oche at the Reebok Stadium in June in the finals of the tournament which will be shown live on Sky Sports.

As part of his journey to Bolton, Singleton’s first obstacle was to throw 15 darts in a bid to score one of the highest 16 cumulative totals.

He scored an impressive 443 and then went on to beat another amateur player 2-0 in the best of three-legs qualifier.

Singleton has played darts for more than 30 years but has never entered the UK Open before. He said: “Darts has always been a big part of my life and when I had to stop playing before my back operation I still made sure I didn’t miss out by chalking up during matches at places like the Holly Bush in Leamington and attending their exhibition matches.

“I had no expectations before playing at the qualifier.

“I just knew that I would need to score over 400 to stand any change of getting through to the 501 matches.

“It was a nervous wait to see whether I’d made the cut but hearing that I’d got through gave me a boost for the knockout stage and I can’t wait for Bolton in June now.”

Singleton will be joined in Bolton by PDC players Steve Beaton and Nigel Heydon, who will enter the competition in the second round.

Beaton qualified in 24th place after reaching the quarter-finals of Saturday’s seventh qualifying event.