Slevin hungry for more after World Darts bow

By Shane Brophy

Borrisokane’s Dylan Slevin lived the dream on Sunday night as he made his debut at the PDC World Darts Championship in London.

The 21-year-old, nicknamed Oceans Slevin (in homage to the film Ocean’s Eleven) made the famous stage walk to the music of Crazy Crazy Nights by Kiss at around 7.20pm in front of over three thousand fans for his first round tie with the experienced Florian Hempel from Germany.

Both players were nervous in the early going, but it was Slevin who held his nerve better to win the opening set and the confidence gained saw him raise the roof of the Ally Pally with a 167 check-out in the opening leg of the second set. The second set saw the quality increase and it would come down to a deciding leg with the Borrisokane man missing three darts for the set as Hempel made no mistake in drawing level at one set each.

Slevin would rebound to take a two-leg lead in the third set but failed to take a number of opportunities to take a 2-1 lead as the German would show his experience to come take the third set.

Slevin appeared to lose some confidence and with Hempel piling on the pressure, averaging over 91 in the final two sets to record a 3-1 win and progress to the second round.

Along with 167 checkout which was the highest of the World Championships at the time on day three, Dylan Slevin also managed four maximums (180s) in an impressive debut performance where he averaged over 90.

The loss brings to an end a successful first season on the PDC ProTour, and commenting on his Facebook page on Monday following the defeat, Dylan said: “It wasn't to be for me last night, but fair play to Florian, and I wish him all the best for the rest of the tournament.

“The support was amazing and thank you to everyone that wished me well. That's it for me for 2023, but I'll be back hungrier than ever in 2024.”