Jonny Clayton: Plastering days set to end for Welsh darts star

Jonny Clayton says his days balancing life as a professional darts player and council plasterer are coming to an end.

The 47-year-old has combined working for Carmarthenshire County Council with his rise to prominence on the oche.

"It's looking more like I'm becoming a full time dart player," he said

"I don't think there is much time left in work. In all fairness to them they can't keep giving me time off because they need workforce to carry out their work."

Clayton's commitments with the PDC since grabbing the headlines as fellow Welshman Gerwyn Price's partner in winning the 2020 World Cup of Darts mean he is on unpaid leave to continue his sporting ambitions.

After going on to win the 2021 Masters, Clayton admitted he was pondering quitting his day job to concentrate on darts and that move now seems more imminent.

Clayton's busy darts schedule is underlined in the coming days with the Premier League play-offs starting on Monday, 13 June.

Later in that week he will team up once more alongside Price with the 2022 World Cup of Darts the target.

He added: "At the moment I'm off on unpaid leave so it's a break basically because of the Premier League - it' so hectic.

"So I think my time is coming to an end with Carmarthenshire County Council and you know I'll become a full-time pro dart player."

Clayton hopes the development will not have a detrimental effect on his efforts.

"It's different… I find when you're working your mind is completely off darts so then you've got a work-balance of you think of work and then you think of darts when you play darts so I don't know," he said.

"So far it's kind of working so hopefully it carries on."