A former World Championship finalist says he was living on his own in a flea-ridden one-bedroom flat, just four years after earning a life-changing £50,000 sum at the biggest tournaments in darts.
Back in 2008, an outsider who returned odds of 1000-1 managed to secure his place in the PDC World Darts Championship final.
Kirk Shepherd, who was earning £5.25 an hour as a factory worker when he turned up at the Alexandra Palace for his first round game against Terry Jenkins, beat Mick McGowan, Peter Manley and Wayne Mardle before facing John Part in the showpiece finale.
"The Karate Kid" would suffer a 7-2 defeat against three-time world champion Part but after climbing from 173rd to 22nd on the PDC Order of Merit, Shepherd was tipped to break into the top 10 and challenge for further silverware.
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However, his life took a turn after the 2008 World Championships and by his own admission, the Ramsgate-born thrower went "a bit doo-lally” and got "carried away by it all".
Speaking to the Daily Star, Shepherd opened up on his journey.
“It was a fantastic run, one of the greatest weeks of my life,” he said about the 2008 event. “What kept me going was being the underdog – I was riding the wave, I went up on that stage fearless and relaxed because I had nothing to lose, and I didn't want it to end.
“But I went from being a normal lad working in a factory to back-page headlines and a nice big pay cheque. After that, the devil came for me. I went a bit doo-lally and got carried away by it all.”
He continued: “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.
“Much as I hate to admit it, I was gambling and turning to drink. I had no manager to straighten me out, and I went off the rails. In hindsight, reaching that final at Ally Pally was too much, too soon. It was my first-ever success at a major tournament, and, in hindsight, I wasn't ready for it.”
The 39-year-old, who admitted that dartitis forced him to withdraw from the tour, also told his partner that he'd never throw another dart.
“It was causing me a lot of stress and anxiety, this game I had been playing for 20 years, and all of a sudden it was giving me panic attacks,” he said, having explained how he struggled to leave the house for 18 months.
After a difficult spell, things have since taken an upward turn. As of 2023, Shepherd was working as an electrician.
He explained: “I've been qualifying as an electrician at a firm called Bilfinger in Haydock – 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.”
Topics: Darts, World Darts Championship
Jack Kenmare