RISING STAR OF IRISH
Glenmalure’s Evan Byrne is taking the darts world by storm
LADIES and gentlemen, may I introduce Ireland’s brightest prospect in the sport of darts, Mr. Evan Byrne, from Glenmalure.
He first picked up darts competitively two years ago and now, at just 15 years of age, he has qualified as number four on the Irish national under-18 team which will see him take part in the BDO Youth Championships, the BDO Masters, International exhibitions and the European Cup in Sweden, and, possibly, the World Youths Cup in Japan later this year.
There’s one small problem for the gifted Evan, playing darts at this level is not cheap and he’s looking for a sponsor to come on board and help launch this talented young player’s career to the next level.
Evan is a member of the Youth Darts Academy that operates out of Doyle’s pub in Rathnew every Thursday evening and he is being mentored by Clifford Doyle who says that the humble young man is an exceptional talent who can go far.
So how did he start? And how has he fared so far?
“It was an exhibition in the Arklow Bay Hotel, Adrian Lewis was playing, Clifford was at the exhibition and my mother asked him about the Academy and he said, “Yeah, come down,” so I went down the first week I like it and I just kept practising and practising from there,” said Evan.
“There’s always been a dart board at home, my uncle plays with the Wicklow League and I found here and started playing and for the first year I was getting beaten by all the lads here and I started practicising a bit more and I came in and I started winning and I got to number one in the Acadamey and then I said I was going to give Ireland a goand then I went in and qualified for the Irish team.
“The first tournament I played in I got to the final and the second one I played in I got to the final.
“The first one was at an acadamy in Carlow, they were opening up, Killian Heffernan, he was number two in Ireland at the time, and he bet me in the final. That was the first time I had heard tell of any of them.
“And then I went to Tramore and I heard more big names that I didn’t know at the time and I got to the final of the under-21.
“Then we were just here and I was winning here and then we went to Ennis. We did ok in Ennis at the All-Irelands. That was the first time Wicklow had entered a youths team for years and the first time big competition that we had really entered, that was two years ago, 2015.
“We were doing well. We won or first game, and we were all sort of excited about it. We went in then and we were beaten in the quarter-final of the cup and we went into the Shield then a we won the quarter-final of that and then we had an edgy last leg to the semi-final and then we went into the final and we won it.
“That was first time ever really. It was great for the Academy. The next week there were more people down and after that I said I’d wait before trying to qualify for the Ireland team because the year was half over.
“I went at it the following year and I took part in 12 competitions where you collect points and out of them all I fgot to two semi-finals, two finals, and the rest were quarter-finals and I qualified in the top four in Ireland out of about 40 players,” added Evan.
So two years after picking up the darts in a competitive frame of mind, Evan has now qualified for the Irish team. Clifford Doyle says he has the darts world talking, such is his talent.
“Everybody in the country knows Even and they know that he’s the best prospect in Irish darts at this moment in time. That’s not from here, the Youths Academy, that’s from other counties,” said Clifford.
Evan’s first real taste of beating a big name came in Tramore last August when he got to gain revenge over the Ireland number two wh had beaten him in Carlow.
“I got to Tramore last August and I said I was going to have to win down here. I was going through and I was playing nice darts. I bet Killian Heffernan, he was playing with Meath, he had beaten me in several finals so it was nice to get a win over him. He qualified as number two in Ireland.
“And then we kept going and we kept getting beaten in these finals and then we were up in the Green Isle and Cian Barry (17), he’s very, very good, from the Meath county team, he got to the final of the European Cup and he’s qualified as number one in Ireland for the last two years in a row. I went in and I played him and I beat him 5-2. That was in the Irish Masters Round 2, two weeks ago. That was my first real tournament of 2017. That was good. I kind of had to do it that week.
“The week after that we were down in the Woodpecker in the Cup quarter-final and I was 3-0 up on him (Cian) and he came back 3-3, 4-3, 5-5 and then he bet me in the last leg decider,” said Evan.
Qualifying for the Irish team comes with serious costs though. A look at Evan’s diary for the rest of the year will give you some insight.
“For qualifying on the Irish team I get, on March 25, I get to go to Bangor for my International friendly against Northern Ireland and that’s where I get my first Irish cap at under-18s,” said Evan. “Then I get to go to Sweden for the European Cup in the first two weeks in July.
“There’s talk about going to Japan for the World Cup in October as well,” he added.
Evan has already tasted the International flavour of darts when hard work and generosity by the Youths Academy, JJ Jewellers and some select people from Glenmalure provided him with the chance to go play in the BDO Youths Championship.
“Last November the Academy, JJ Jewellers and a selct few people from Glenamlure got money together to send Evan over to the BDO, British Darts Organisation, Youths Championship over in the Lakeside Country Club in England,” said Clifford.
“The best youth payers in Europe go to it. He played and English national player in the first round and beat him 3-0 and in the second round he came up against Northern Ireland’s top youth thrower Nathan Rafferty and he got beat by Nathan in a world class game. Nathan is 17, going on 18 and he is Nothern Ireland’s best thrower.
“Because Evan qualified in the top four in Ireland he gets to