PDC Tour card hopeful Jack Tweddell discusses his health issues as he aims to win the biggest prize on the amateur darts circuit
A darts star is hoping to bank a £60,000 top prize after fighting back from two strokes. Following a thrilling World Championship at Alexandra Palace, the festive darts season isn’t quite over.
On Sunday, eight players will compete for glory at the ADC Global Championship Grand Final in Portsmouth, with the action streamed live and free on Pluto TV. Among the field will be Jack Tweddell, who narrowly missed out on a place at Ally Pally after an excellent season on the PDC Challenge Tour.
The Swindon thrower, 30, also featured in several Players Championship events as a top-up player and will attempt to secure a PDC Tour card at Q-School later this month. For now, he is focused on the ADC Championship, which started with players around the country chasing a chunk of the £150,000 prize fund, with £60,000 going to the winner.
Following an intense pre-Christmas group phase involving 56 players, the field has been reduced to eight. Just being involved is a victory of sorts for Tweddell, who has endured serious bouts of ill-health in recent years, which left him struggling to walk, let alone throw a dart.
“I’m only two years into back playing again, so it’s not a bad effort,” he says modestly of his achievements in 2025. “I was out of the game for three or four years. They’re [doctors] still not 100 per cent sure what happened to me.
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“Their working theory is that I had mini strokes. I’ve had two now. The one that happened five or six years ago has given me more lasting issues, whereas the first one didn’t.
“The last one left me unable to walk properly for a few months, over a year or so. I was on crutches when my partner suggested, about three and a half years ago, that I put a dartboard back up in the kitchen.”
Having rebuilt his game, Tweddell, who works as a data analyst for Amazon, is now one of the top players on the amateur circuit with the ambition of turning professional.
That was expected during his days in the youth ranks, while his brother is former PDC Tour card holder Chris Aubrey, whose contemporaries included the likes of Michael Smith and Joe Cullen.
Back then, Tweddell felt the pressure to make the big time. Now, following his health issues, he has a different outlook on the game. He says: “I put too much pressure on myself when I was young. Everyone told me I was going to do well, so I felt I probably should.
“But now it’s like, ‘If I can’t play darts tomorrow, at least I can walk properly, or at least better.’ There’s perspective and I think that’s why I started playing quite well and more consistently.
“It’s made more relaxed. If I lose, I lose, it is what it is. I still want to win but it doesn’t happen, I’ll just go again.”
Tweddell faces Tom Sykes in the quarter-finals, with the action getting under way at 1pm. The semi-finals follow at 3pm, with the final at 4pm. The action will be streamed live on Pluto TV’s MODUS Super Series channel.
