To the Ally Pally
By Thomas Conway
The World Darts Championship has become a staple of the sporting landscape at Christmas time, but this year will have a major local interest after Dylan Slevin qualified for the biggest darts event for the first time.
He is too humble to admit it, but the Borrisokane native is a history maker. Last Friday, word quickly spread that the 20-year-old had secured qualification for the annual PDC World Darts Championship in London’s Alexandria Palace.
It started off as a rumour, but the news was quickly confirmed. Slevin will become the first Tipperary man to walk out on stage in the famous “Ally Pally” arena, as the venue is affectionately known.
He’ll be right there in the thick of it, luminescent in the burning bright lights, competing alongside the best in the business. It was as almost as much of a shock to Slevin as it was to the entire Tipperary sporting community, but this is something he’s worked painstakingly hard for. He hadn’t seen it coming, but now that he has his ticket, he’s going to relish every last minute of it.
“It’s a shock to the system but it’s also a dream come true,” Slevin said.
“As a young darts player you dream, you watch it at Christmas and you say, ‘I wish I was there’. And to actually now be there, to be in the Ally Pally playing with the best in the world, it’s a massive achievement in my career.
“I’m throwing since I was about 15 years of age. I never thought that I’d be on the professional circuit, at this age, doing what I’m doing at the moment. And look, I’m only 20, I’m still young and I have a lot to learn, but it’s a just massive achievement. To be honest about it I didn’t really know how to react at first.”
Established in 1994, the PDC World Darts Championship is the showpiece event of the annual calendar. It has evolved from a relatively small and specialised competition to an annual fun-fare which hits television screens each Christmas and draws in millions in audience figures. The action is absorbing, the atmosphere electric.
All the heavy hitters will be there, from Dutch maestro Michael van Gerwen to reigning world champion Michael Smith. One might forgive Slevin for feeling a little intimidated but that’s not the way the Borrisokane man is approaching the spectacle. He’s going over there to make waves, to establish himself on the world stage. He’s made no secret about it - he wants to win the bloody thing!
“You’re in it because you want to win it, you want to win tournaments, you want to bring home trophies,” he said.
“And if it was such that this year I came back home with the World Championship trophy under my arm, my life would just be complete.”
Slevin’s background in the sport is far from illustrious. He only began throwing seriously when he was fifteen, before gradually gaining recognition on the national stage and earning selection for various Irish underage teams. The decision to turn professional was a watershed moment. Darts players live a precarious lifestyle and you’re only ever as good as your last tournament, but Slevin backed himself. And he doesn’t regret it.
“My first professional tournament I got to the semi-final. I was new, I had no experience, but I managed to get that far,” he says.
“And that’s when it really hits you, when you realise that you’ve made the top four of a professional competition. And that’s when you start testing yourself and asking yourself can you do it again, can you go even further? So hopefully over the next year I can qualify for more major tournaments and maybe win a few ranking events - that’s my priority.”
In the space of a couple of days, the 20-year old’s story has captured the imagination of the Tipperary sporting public. He admits that it has felt a little surreal. His phone has been awash with congratulatory messages, and he’s appreciative of every one of them. The experience, he reckons, will be equally surreal. The music, the lights, the screams of 180 from the crowd. He wants to savour every second of it. But he also wants to bring his A-game. And if he does, he feels he’s capable of going deep into this competition. A Christmas miracle in the Ally Pally perhaps? Don’t rule it out.