Morihiro Hashimoto

Morihiro Hashimoto
Personal information
Full name	橋本 守容
Nickname	The Ogre
Born	10 February 1977 (age 38) Okayama Prefecture, Japan
Home town	Okayama Prefecture Japan
Darts information
Playing darts since	2004
Darts	MONSTER Ogre
Laterality	Right-handed
Walk-on music	Reach Up (Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag) by Perfecto Allstarz
Organisation (see split in darts)
PDC	2010–
PDC premier events - best performances
World Ch'ship	Last 64: 2011, 2014
Other tournament wins
PDC World Japan Qualifying Event 2010, 2013

Morihiro Hashimoto (橋本 守容 Hashimoto Morihiro) (born 10 February 1977) is a Japanese darts player, nicknamed The Ogre.

Career

Hashimoto first appeared in the PDC circuit competing in the 2009 Las Vegas Desert Classic qualifiers, as well as a Players Championship. He attempted to qualify for the 2010 PDC World Darts Championship, but lost in the final of the Japanese Qualifying event to Haruki Muramatsu. In September 2010, Hashimoto won through the qualifier, beating Mitsumasa Hoshino in the final and qualified for the 2011 PDC World Darts Championship. A month later, he was a quarter finalist in the Japan Open and in November, he reached the final of the WDF Asia-Pacific Cup men's singles, losing to New Zealand's Koha Kokiri.

Hashimoto was drawn in the Preliminary Round against PDPA qualifier Matt Padgett and quickly became popular with the crowd. After winning his first leg, levelling the match at 1–1, the crowd started chanting his name to the tune of "Reach Up (Papa's Got a Brand New Pigbag)", which is used as a walk on by Adrian Lewis. Hashimoto went on to win the match by 4 legs to 2 and become the second Japanese qualifier to win through the premlinary round after Muramatsu.^[1] The song, performed by the Perfecto Allstarz, was played at the end of the match instead of the traditional "Chase the Sun" by Planet Funk, and Hashimoto would have it played as his walk on for his first round match against Gary Anderson. He would not win a leg as Anderson whitewashed him 3–0 in sets. After the match, Hashimoto, speaking English, thanked the crowd for their support.^[2]

Hashimoto represented Japan with Haruki Muramatsu in the 2012 PDC World Cup of Darts and together they were beaten 5–2 by Sweden in the first round.^[3]

Hashimoto beat Muramatsu 6–5 in the final of the Japanese qualifying tournament for the 2014 World Championship.^[4] He saw off Paul Lim 4–2 in the preliminary round and won the opening set in his first round match against Michael Smith, but went on to lose 3–1.^[5] In June, Hashimoto and Muramatsu watched as Canada missed seven darts for the match in the first round of the World Cup of Darts to step in and steal a 5–4 win.^[6] In the second round they both lost their singles matches against the Northern Irish partnering of Brendan Dolan and Michael Mansell to exit the tournament.^[7] A year later, after whitewashing China 5–0, they were knocked out at the same stage this time by the top seeds England.^[8] Hashimoto lost 6–2 in the first round of the inaugural Japan Darts Masters to James Wade.^[9]

World Championship results

PDC

• 2011: First round (lost to Gary Anderson 0–3)
• 2014: First round (lost to Michael Smith 1–3)

References

1. "Simon Whitlock advances at PDC World Darts Championship". BBC Sport. 2010-12-18. Retrieved 2010-12-21.
2. "Flashy start for Dudbridge". SKY Sports. 2010-12-19. Retrieved 2010-12-21.
3. "Cash Converters World Cup RD1". PDC. 3 February 2012. Retrieved 3 February 2012.
4. "2014 PDC World Japan Qualifying Event Results". Darts Database. Retrieved 28 November 2013.
5. "Ladbrokes World Championship Day Six". PDC. 19 December 2013.
6. "bwin World Cup of Darts First Round". PDC. Retrieved 7 June 2014.
7. "bwin World Cup of Darts Second Round". PDC. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
8. "bwin World Cup of Darts Quarter-Finals". PDC. Retrieved 13 June 2015.
9. "Zipang Casino Japan Darts Masters Day One". PDC. 20 August 2015.

External links

• Annie's Diary Official Blog
• Player profile on Morihiro Hashimoto from Dartsdatabase