Kirk Shepherd’s stellar run to the 2008 World Darts Championship final is one of the sport’s greatest stories, but early success changed the 21-year-old’s life forever
Kirk Shepherd’s stellar run to the 2008 World Darts Championship final is one of the sport’s greatest stories, but early success changed the 21-year-old’s life forever Kirk Shepherd’s stellar run to the 2008 World Darts Championship final is one of the sport’s greatest stories, but early success changed the 21-year-old’s life forever
Kirk Shepherd’s astonishing journey to the 2008 World Darts Championship final remains one of the most fascinating underdog stories in the sport’s history.
The rank outsider, with odds of 1000-1, beat several darts icons on his way to landing a legendary showdown with John Part, which earned him a hefty £50,000 despite not winning the title.
At the age of 21, Shepherd, from Kent, emerged from obscurity to face Part in the final, only to be defeated by a comfortable margin. His life changed overnight. The days of juggling darts training with his work at a sheet metal factory were replaced by sudden financial security and a whirlwind period of fame.
But his new lifestyle, which brought complacency, would lead to his career declining. That, in turn, led to him losing his tour card almost three years ago at the age of 37, having struggled with dartitis.
Looking back on his career, Shepherd candidly told The Daily Star: “I went from being a normal lad working in a factory to back-page headlines and a nice big pay cheque,” adding, “After that, the devil came for me.
“I went a bit doo-lally and got carried away by it all. I thought everything was going to fall on a plate for me and it was the start of a new beginning, a bright new dawn, but I stopped putting in the effort. I got lazy.
“From earning £50,000 as runner-up at the World Championship in 2008 and having some wealth, four years later I was living on my own in a flea-ridden one-bed flat.”
(
Image:
Getty)
Dartisis, which is the loss of fine motor skills similar to the ‘yips’ in golf, started causing Shepherd anxiety and panic attacks to the extent that he didn’t pick up a dart for almost three years. He went on to receive support from the PDC and PDPA, which he says has put him in a “much better place”.
”I’ve been qualifying as an electrician at a firm called Bilfinger in Haydock,” Shepherd continued. “I don’t think they knew who they were taking on at first, but now I am just plain Kirk Shepherd, not the 1,000-1 outsider who reached the final at Ally Pally.
“I’m a father of three boys aged 15, 13 and six, and things are so much brighter that I’m even thinking of picking up the old arrows again. I might have left darts, but darts has never left me.”
Mirror – Sport
