A Cwmbran teenager who started playing darts “for fun” just 18 months ago has been picked to represent Wales at the world junior championships.
Liam Cook, 16, is looking for sponsors and businesses to help him travel and enter top tournaments over the next year- check out his GoFundMe page to make a donation.
His nickname is ‘The Cookie Monster,’ and he competes in a shirt with this emblazoned on the back.
He’s number one in the Wales Junior Darts Corporate (JDC) rankings for players aged up to 17 and ranked 13th in Wales in the Amateur Darts Circuit (ADC), which is for adults players (14+).
He told Cwmbran Life: “I started playing darts for fun back in January 2025, but I started taking it competitively last September, so since then I’ve just improved and started doing it a lot.
“I’ve just improved on my darts, skills, my ranking in Wales and my progress on the advanced tour. At the moment, I’m number one in Wales and ranked 21st in the world for youth, and in the last series in the ADC, I finished 13th in Wales.
“The ADC is the amateur dart circuit is 14 and over so it just gives me a wider range of players and levels. I play a lot better against the adults so I feel like there’s more to prove to myself.”
Two major tournaments are coming up: the Nations Cup in Scotland and the JDC World Cup in Gibraltar, which will be watched by darts fans worldwide on the event’s live YouTube channel.
Liam said: “My family are really proud of me, my friends think it’s a good thing. I’ve made a lot more friends through darts as well.”
He noticed a fast improvement when he started playing, which soon turned into daily practice.
“I practice at home at night, he said. “But in the week I’ve normally got ADCs. I do darts seven days a week so I’m really busy with it. I do about three to four hours a day, or sometimes I can do it for a full 12 hours, depending on how busy I am.”
Since leaving St Alban’s RC High School last month, he’s started the perfect part-time job- working in Smart Darts in Fairwater Shops.
Liam said: “If anyone would like to help sponsor me, it would be very helpful towards my career and for me to go to Gibraltar, Scotland, and enter more tournaments. If people do want to see my journey, I’m on TikTok, Facebook and Instagram.”
And his nickname? He laughed: “It just comes from my surname… and I like cookies.”