Meet the family of dart throwing champions living in B.C. and Newfoundland working to grow the sport

Bill Hammond Jr. never would have imagined his whole family would end up playing darts competitively — let alone have a teenager win the world cup. 

He started playing in the ’90s, when a friend invited him to try it out. 

“I thought it was a joke,” he says with a laugh. 

But as it turned out, he was pretty good. 

Then he met his now-wife, Sandy Hope, and they started playing competitive darts together, getting serious about one another and the sport.

“But there were not the opportunities back then like there are now,” he says.  “The opportunities for dart players nowadays is absolutely amazing. You could make a career out of it now.”

That’s just what his son, 17-year-old Peyton Hammond, is hoping. The young athlete just won the World Darts Federation World Cup Youth Singles 2025 title in Seoul, South Korea, in September, and is hoping to move to England, where darts tournaments are more frequent and more lucrative. 

“In the U.K., they have a tournament almost every single weekend. Here, I’m playing a tournament probably once a month,” he said. 

But before Peyton takes off, he and his family are doing everything they can to try to grow the sport of darts all across Canada. 

While many think of darts as a game to play with friends over a couple of pints, 16-year-old national champion Jayda Hammond says it’s much more than that. 

“It’s not just a pub sport like everybody thinks it is,” she says, noting that she wouldn’t be able to play as a minor if that were the case. “It brings families together.”

It certainly does bring the Hammond-Hope family together; the crew spans from coast to coast. Bill and Sandy live in Langford, B.C., with three of their kids, Peyton, Jayda and 23-year-old Trey Hammond, while the other two kids, 35-year-old Alycia Hope, a former team Newfoundlander now working with youth dart players, and Quentin Hope, 29, who played several years of youth darts, live in St. John’s, N.L.

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bill says the family played darts together virtually — which is when Peyton’s skills started to develop. 

As an infant, Peyton watched from his high chair as his dad, who’d made B.C.’s provincial team several times and went to nationals, practiced throwing darts. By the time he was three, he was beginning to learn the sport himself. Over the last couple of years, he’s taken to throwing darts three, sometimes six hours a day to keep his skills sharp. 

“Usually every single night, like, we play non-stop,” Bill says. “And then Jayda will join, or then we’ll call Alycia and we’ll put the webcam up and we’ll play webcam darts with them.”

Bill says darts helps develop good hand-eye coordination, mental and physical strength, and math skills. 

It’s also a relatively inexpensive sport to get into, he says. A dart board for your home can run you about $100, and a good set of darts costs about the same, Bill said. 

Jayda says that while darts can get competitive, it’s really about having fun. 

“Pretty much anybody you meet at a tournament will be willing to help you, especially in Canada,” she says. “It’s like it’s a big family. Like honestly, so supporting … will just help anybody. They’re all just amazing.”

But, the family says it’s hard to get new people involved in the sport. Generally, they say, people don’t start playing unless their parents are involved — making it tough to grow.

“We tried to do an exhibition at the schools … and they said no because the darts would be considered a weapon because they have points on them,” Bill said. 

The only way they can really get the word out is on Facebook, where the family says most dart leagues and tournaments put out the majority of their information. 

They suggest anyone interested in darts reach out to their local group on Facebook for information.