Birthday bonus for brilliant Barry
DULEEK darts maestro Keane Barry has had another week to remember in his amazing career after marking his 18th birthday with stunning wins in the Modus Icons tournament.
The former St Mary’s DS student didn’t even become eligible to play until last Thursday, but the organisers had him lined up to join the league on the day he turned 18 and by Saturday he had won 12 out of 15 matches, topped the league standings twice and placed second out of six contenders on the other day.
Among his ‘victims’ were Martin Adams - ranked 18th in the world - and Fallon Sherrock who famously became the first woman to beat a male player in last year’s PDC World Championship.
Like other tournaments happening around the British Isles at the moment, the Modus Icons event uses technology to allow players to compete against each other in their own homes, thereby getting round the problem of not being able to travel due to the coronavirus restrictions here and in the UK.
It’s a format that Keane already seems very comfortable with, although he’s looking forward to the day when Covid-19 is brought under control and competitions can resume in proper venues in front of an audience.
‘It has not been too bad,’ he summised, when asked about life under lockdown.
‘I’ve been throwing darts a lot after getting that contract through Modus Darts and it runs three or four days a week until August 8th, so that’ll keep me on my toes. The organisers approached me last month thinking I was 18 already, so they had to postpone and I was put in to play last Thursday.
‘Modus are one of the best known companies in darts - they’re managed by Michael van Gerwen. There’s a new winner in the tournament every day and there’s good money, which you would appreciate especially in these times.
‘It’s top-quality players and the experience will certainly bring my game on.’
Like his fellow players, Keane has been impressed by the technology that allowed the tournament to go ahead.
‘They sent me two tripods and two webcams and one is set up on me and the other on the board,’ he explained.
‘They have IT fellas who link it all up to a computer, and if there’s any problems they sort it out, but the first two days it ran very smoothly.’
Last week’s success came hot on the heels of overall victory in the Target Elite 1 Home League, defeating Lewy Williams in the final.
Meanwhile, there’s plenty happening away from the oche too as Keane featured in a TG4 programme which focused on the lives of talented Irish people in their own homes during the lockdown.
‘I was on TG4 recently with Hector [Ó hEochagáin],’ said Keane. He was in his shed in Galway and he sent people out to film me. It was brilliant how simple it was, and he made everything look really, really good. He is stone mad - what you see is what you get - but he’s a bit of craic!’
Keane now also has his own Ultimate Darts card thanks to a recommendation from a legendary Dutch player.
‘Raymond van Barneveld text me - it’s his manager who is doing it - and it turned out it was Ray who put my name forward,’ Keane explained. ‘He’s an icon in darts, so that was great to hear - when he’s talking about you, you know you must be doing something right.
‘I would have been shocked to get a text from him, but at the World Championship he was watching my game and sent messages to me from the very start.
If you think something is going wrong with your game, it’s great to know he’s only a text away. He’s sound!’
Meanwhile, PDC Tour events are due to resume next week - albeit behind closed doors - and Keane looks forward to the day when he can put the tripod and webcam away and return to some sort of normality.
‘I’m hoping the tournaments will get back to normal, but it’s hard to know,’ he said.
‘The situation with the virus is much worse in England than here and all the darts is in England, and even if the tournaments came back I might not be able to travel.
‘If I was able to play but it wasn’t safe I wouldn’t take the risk. I want to stay safe and healthy so that I’m still able to visit my grans!
‘You do miss the craic when you’re not travelling because we all meet up at the airport, get on the same flights and share the same taxis and hotels.’
Having now turned 18, Keane won’t be eligible to defend his BDO World Youth and JDC World Junior titles, so looking ahead to the next few months his focus is on qualifying again for the PDC World Championship - he was the youngest player in the field last year - and possibly getting through Q-School to earn a place on the 2021 PDC Tour.
‘It’s disappointing I can’t defend my world titles, but the plan is to try to qualify for the PDC World Championship again, so I need to make sure I’m on my game to get to Ally Pally [Alexandra Palace].
‘With the tour card it’s early doors and we’ll have to see what’s going to happen towards the end of the year. It might go ahead - hopefully it does.’
All the while Keane insists that fame hasn’t changed him, and typical of the well-grounded young man he signs off our conversation with a caring ‘stay safe’ message.
‘I just stay the same me. I’m getting a lot more hype on social media and getting a lot more comments and likes and followers and whatever. I read all the good ones, and if I get three or four bad ones I put them to the back of my mind.
‘What’s the point in focusing on them?’