SWINDON’s Johnny Haines is looking forward to taking on some of the biggest names in darts after winning a PDC ProTour card at Qualifying School.

The 47-year-old was in a good position to pick up one of the 24 places available through the order of merit going into the final round of the four day event, but put in a superb performance to charge through the field and pick up one of the four automatic places available on Sunday night.

Haines beat off competition from more than 200 players over four days in Barnsley to claim his card, and was delighted with his performance which saw him come back from 5-3 down to beat Gary Butcher 6-5 to secure his place.

“You have to be very happy coming away from that, because it was a very tough weekend full of a lot of good players,” he told the Advertiser.

“I played some good darts all of the way through, and that is what you need to do. I was confident I could get a tour card through the order of merit system, but to get an automatic place was brilliant.”

It was a long four days for Haines, who also made the semi-final of the CIU National Darts Individual Championship in Cubworth on Saturday night, but he is already starting to look ahead after gaining his card which allows him to enter many of the sport’s top events.

“Being able to be on the tour will be great, and I will look to do as many of the events as I am able to do. I am still looking for some sponsorship, but we will have to wait and see about that.

“I am looking forward to being able to mix it with some of the best players, and hopefully that will bring the best out of me. “You can have good days and bad days really, but if I can have a few good days than I will be happy.”

Haines has already beaten world number three James Wade during his time as an amateur, and has reached four UK Opens, which he is targeting again.

“Making it to Bolton would be great, because I have played there before. I know what it takes and I would like to do it again. “In the end though, I would love to make it to the World Championship, but you need to be in the top 32 for that which would by tough.” Haines will not be competing in the opening Player’s Championship event of the season in Benidorm at the weekend, but should make his first appearance as a tour player in the UK Open qualifiers in Crawley in February.