Peabody native earns top spot at playing darts

The following was submitted by Mark Stokes:

Some twenty years ago Tom Sawyer was asked by some high school friends if he would like to try his hand at playing darts. Tom stepped out of the shadows and up to the oche, and in the process found that hidden talent in life which most of us yearn for but never discover.

Two decades on this Peabody (Massachusetts) native has so much to thank his school pals for. He's at the top of his game, designing his own arrows, traveling to exotic destinations and rubbing shoulders with some of the best players on the planet.

Tom is the pride and joy of Boston's North Shore – his Suicide 9 team, which operates out of The Barn in Amesbury, benefiting from the 42 year-old's undoubted talent.

Sawyer has the best of both worlds as far as sponsorship goes. He's gone overseas to England for the tools of his trade – a very slim, but also quite profound custom design tungsten, made by Target and weighing in at a whopping 25.5 grams.

These arrows also boast a unique and quite sensible flight placement – plugging one-piece and practically into the shaft rather than via the conventional quadrant application. Why aren't all darts made this way?

Dartworld of Lynn (Massachusetts) has also thrown its finances behind the American Darts Organization's third-ranked player, while Tom can also boast a following on yet another continent – Japan's Cosmo Fit Flight are proud to have him on board.

His career highlights are surely the envy of his contemporaries?

“In the last couple of years I've qualified for the World Masters (two years in a row) and just recently I qualified for this year's Americas Cup.”

Tom also remembers the hush of the crowd in Las Vegas when he stepped up to the oche, three darts shy of a perfect game in Cricket. He missed perfection, and the $10,000 that went with it, by one dart.

The penny dropped for Sawyer in 2002 when he began traveling outside the area to play in tournaments. It was at that point he realized he may just have a future in the sport.

Unassuming and proud of his achievements in the game, Tom exudes contentment as he speaks about his time away from the oche, which is spent fishing, carving wood and caring for his parents. By day he works in the shipping department of a Boston area chemical company, yet one senses that Sawyer could one day soon wave goodbye to his day job and take up the game professionally.

“Tom has been at the top of his form all year,” says ADO number one Larry Butler.

“He's given me some of the toughest matches I've had all year. He's moved into the number three position in the ADO, I believe. He's had a brilliant year.”

Steve Panuncialman, who hosts a Chicago-based darts radio show, weighs in on Tom:

“At every big tournament, Tom's the one guy you heard about this year. Throwing big shot after big shot, and not just winning, but dominating. No one goes undefeated on the circuit of course, but especially this year Tom has set the standard for what it will take to win.

“But what I like most about Tom is that he's such a great guy to talk with about the game. He doesn't 'big-time' people - he's accessible and attentive, the way an ambassador of the game should be. No drama, no excuses - win or lose, Tom's there with his friendly, low-key demeanor, and a smile. Tom's a great example of what an American dart professional can be, and I for one am proud to call him a colleague.”

But there are challenges to maintaining one's status among America's top darts players, are there not?

“Physically it's a little tough,” says Sawyer.

“People don't understand how much wear and tear goes through your body standing for fifteen to seventeen hours a day at a tournament. Mentally that's probably the toughest part. To get yourself prepared mentally there's a lot of stuff that goes on that people don't see at a tournament.”

In a sport where most players wear their nicknames on their sleeves, Tom is proud to say that he's just Tom Sawyer - nothing more, nothing less. This simplistic formula also stretches to his home life – Tom has taken a unique, and perhaps crazy some would say, approach to the game. His home is devoid of a dartboard!

“It's the way it's been for the past sixteen years,” he says with the confidence of one who knows something the rest of us do not.

Tom's fondest Minute Man Darts League memory came four seasons ago:

“It was winning my first state championship with the team that I have now. Because it was with quite a few players that I have been playing with for a long time, and some of them had never won a state championship in the Minute Man League,” says Suicide 9's killer.

To those interested in taking up the sport Tom, who doubles as an ADO regional director, recommends a lot of practice “because there's a lot of muscle memory involved.”

He's also been down another road which has its pitfalls.

“Try to avoid the excessive drinking that tends to be involved with this sport and the tournaments. People think it makes them better but it really doesn't. I'm a proven fact of that because I've played it both ways.”

And what does it mean to Tom Sawyer to be playing in the John Lowe event next month?

“It's interesting. It should be fun. I remember doing the same type of thing years ago when I first started. Against Eric Bristow and Keith Deller. I was one of only two guys out of fifty that beat either one of them. I have played John Lowe at the Witch City event years ago so I'd like to get the chance to do it again and see what happens.”