quarter-finals of the World Grand Prix. Hamilton faced Michael van Gerwen and despite making a 160 finish to force a deciding set, he lost 2–3. Hamilton topped his group at the Grand Slam of Darts by winning all three of his games, before taking out four ton-plus finishes to edge past Gary Anderson 10–9. He beat John Part 16–12 in the quarter-finals, and led van Barneveld 6–3 in the semis, before the Dutchman put together a match defining run of nine straight legs and eventually triumphed 16–10. After all 33 ProTour events of 2012 had been played, Hamilton was 14th on the Order of Merit, which qualified him for the Players Championship Finals where he saw off Andy Smith and van Gerwen to play Taylor in the quarter-finals. Hamilton led 9–5 in the best of 19 legs match, on the verge of beating the 15-time world champion for the first time in a televised match, but Taylor came back and with the score at 9–8, Hamilton needed 60 for the match. He missed the board with his first dart and missed double 20 with his last, this being the only dart he had for the match as he lost 9–10. Hamilton dropped one set in each of his first three games in the 2013 World Championship as he reached the quarter-finals. He played Taylor and lost 0–5, winning just two legs during the match. He threw a nine-dart finish in the third UK Open Qualifier of the year during a third round victory over Tony West, but lost in the following round to Richie Burnett 4–6. By reaching the semi-finals of the 2012 Premier League, Hamilton qualified for the 2013 edition. In week six he enjoyed a 7–3 win over Taylor with an average of 101.40, but he lost six of his last seven matches to finish seventh in the league. Hamilton reached the third major final of his career at the UK Open by producing a superb performance to beat Wade 10–8 in the quarter-finals and survived six match darts from van Barneveld in the semis to win 10–9. He averaged 97 in the final against Taylor who averaged almost 10 points more as he won 11–4. Hamilton vowed to win his first major title following the defeat. He reached the final of the sixth Players Championship two weeks later, but lost 6–1 to van Gerwen meaning he had