By Elliott West
“It started at a holiday camp in South Wales. Having lost in the Inter County Knockout Cup a few of us went on the beer. We went into one of the rooms where there was music and the DJ was awful. Being drunk I was heckling the DJ and one of the lads said to me, “Shut up and go and comb your beard wolfman”. That’s how it started and ended up as Wolfie and was bestowed upon me by Mark Waters, a fellow county player for Cambridgeshire”.
Martin Adams
Introduction
One of the nicest men in darts has to be Martin Adams. A professional player since 1981 and now 61 years old, Adams originally from Sutton, Surrey and who now lives in Deeping St James, Lincolnshire, has had a long and phenomenal success in a sport despite his decision to shun the move that many of his colleagues have made to transfer from the BDO to the PDC. A winner of three BDO World Championships and numerous Open wins across Europe including Denmark and Swiss Opens, totalling 71 titles, Martin can boast a higher net worth than Michael Van Gerwen, a sum that is estimated to eclipse his counterpart’s wealth of £4.5 million to the tune of £9 million thanks to his eight major BDO Major triumphs.
Adams was also the captain of the England darts team from 1993-2013, the longest-reigning one and his career have spanned over three decades, having initially joined the BDO and WDF in 1988. Martin briefly dabbled with the PDC in 2001 and 2002, making it to the Matchplay finals in 2001 but decided to return to the BDO after the organisation changed its participation rules. He has only made one further PDC appearance since, that being in 2015, largely due to the PDC saying that it would no longer be eligible for invitations into the Grand Slam tournament in the future. Despite being a stalwart supporter of the BDO, Adams admitted in 2020 to Darts World that :
“I’ve got to be honest, I think unfortunately the BDO has died”.
Martin Adams
A comment that was made on the back of the commercial arm of the organisation, British Darts Organisation Enterprises Ltd, filed for liquidation and the limited success of the World Masters.
The Man and the Howl
Adams has one of the most memorable walk-on tunes, that being Duran Duran’s, ‘Hungry Like the Wolf’. As he enters an arena, the audience greets him with a cacophony of howl noises, a welcome that always brings a broad grin to his face and the noise follows him onto the stage especially when he hits the big checkouts and the 180 scorelines.
A player who has represented Cambridgeshire at country darts level, Adams had never looked back after being made redundant from Lloyd’s Bank in 1992, a year that left the branch door and became a professional. Since then he has made his mark on British darts and made his highest average of 110.52 at the 2007 Zuiderduin Masters against Steve Coote.
Most recently Wolfie has been taking part in this week’s 2022 World Seniors Darts Championship, carving out an impressive 3-2 win against Richie Howson. A match that included a 14-darter and 15-darter by Adams, one that left him behind at several points in the match but his steely determination generated a win, edging his opponent out in five sets and a place in the last eight. A win that may have been helped by him playing online darts during the recent lockdowns. An impressive achievement as Martin has recently suffered from a painful calf muscle injury that takes its toll when he plays. However, it is manageable and minor compared to his battle with prostate cancer in 2016.
