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Topics: Darts, Luke Littler
Luke Davies
A former PDC World Championship finalist now lives a very different life, less than two decades on from almost becoming a world champion.
These days, superstars such as Luke Littler, Luke Humphries and Gerwyn Price are earning vast sums of money from their exploits in darts.
But this was not always the case. Back in 2008, an outsider who returned odds of 1000-1 went all the way to the PDC World Darts Championship final and thought his life had changed forever.
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Kirk Shepherd, who was 21 back then, took the competition by storm before narrowly losing in the final against John Part.
Shepherd, now 38, won the 2004 and 2006 British Open as well as various other events such as the 2003 World Youth Masters and was tipped to develop into a solid professional.
And despite missing out on the World Championship crown, a prize of £50,000 softened the blow and caused Shepherd to quit his factory job.
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But just four years later, Shepherd’s life took a negative turn and by his own admission “went a bit doo-lally”, turning to alcohol and gambling.
“It was a fantastic run, one of the greatest weeks of my life,” Shepherd said about the 2008 World Championships during an interview with the Daily Star in 2023.
“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.”
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He added: “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 38-year-old, who hails from Kent, admitted that a case of ‘dartitis’ forced him to hand his tour card back and tell his partner that “I'll never throw another dart again”.
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“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 revealed, having explained how he struggled to leave the house for 18 months.
However, things have taken an upward turn, and 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.”