Boldly Going
Where Few Have Gone Before
Those of you who followed
the Coral UK Open recently
will no doubt be well aware
of the name Aden Kirk, after
all he completed arguably the
biggest feat of giant killing
in the history of darts and
backed it up with two equally
impressive performances as
he more than doubled his
total PDC prize money to
date. But just where did this
young sensation come from!
Kirk was not a complete unknown,
he competed at Q-School and is
playing both the challenge and
youth tours during 2014. Of course
he had won matches in the UK
Open qualifiers and had reached
a quarter final in both ‘junior’
tours only the weekend before
but realistically he came from
nowhere to beat the greatest
tungsten maestro of all time.
Even members of his own family
could have only dreamt about
his performances, as Kirk himself
admitted when he said, “My
mum’s a massive Phil Taylor fan
and even she didn’t think I’d beat
Phil, but anything could happen
now.”
But is he the real deal, can he use
this as a springboard to further
success?
There is no doubt that Kirk has a
cool head on TV, he kept his nerve
well as he finished the job against
Phil Taylor and then repeated the
act less than 24 hours later against
Peter Wright. For me this is the
key, plenty of players have put in
one big televised performance,
but to repeat it immediately takes
a bit more class.
Plenty of players have defeated
Phil Taylor and folded in their
very next match, for Kirk to go on
and repeat the feat against Peter
Wright and play well in defeat
to Brendan Dolan is impressive
indeed.
Against this, however, you have
to consider the performances of
Kirk’s opponents. Phil Taylor is
currently experiencing his worst
dip in form in over two decades
and Peter Wright wasn’t much
better on the day despite his
recent excellent form.
Kirk never broke the 90 average
mark and this highlights a big
question mark over his future
success. If asked, can he turn it
up a notch? This is a q Y\