Kirk Shepherd

Kirk Shepherd

To person
Nickname	The Karate Kid
nation	England
Date of birth	5th October 1986
place of birth	Ramsgate , Kent , England
place of residence	Birmingham , West Midlands , England
Darts
Darts since	1999
Throwing hand	right
darts	21 g Unicorn Kirk Shepherd
Enema music	" Kung Fu Fighting " by Carl Douglas
BDO	2003-2006
PDC	since 2006
Place in the world rankings	80.
Infobox last updated: January 2nd, 2019

Kirk Shepherd (born October 5, 1986 in Ramsgate , Kent ) is an English dart player with the Professional Darts Corporation . In darts he uses the nickname "The Karate Kid".

Shepherd lost on January 1st, 2008 to John Part in the final of the Darts World Championship in London , finishing 2nd and securing 50,000 pounds. Thanks to this success, he jumped to 22nd place in the Order of Merit .

Shepherd was introduced to the game of darts by his father at the age of nine. On his ninth birthday, his sister gave him a set of arrows. He plays these arrows to this day, but now as a replica by the company Unicorn Darts , which is now sponsoring him.

Sporting successes

Shepherd was the 2003 winner of the Winmau World Youth Masters , won the British Teenage Singles Champion in 2004 and 2006 and has already been twice voted British Darts Organization Young Player of the Year (2005/2006). At the age of just 18 he reached the final of the BDO Gold Cup in 2005. In 2006 he made it to the quarter-finals of the England Open , before moving from BDO to PDC in November 2006 .

His first year in the PDC was not very successful at first: He only achieved a few placements among the best 32 in smaller Pro Tour tournaments and only 142nd place in the world darts rankings.

Shepherd then managed to play in the qualifying tournament for the World Cup in the last 8 and thus qualify for the 2008 World Cup.

At the 2008 World Cup , he achieved some sensational successes. He beat Terry Jenkins in the first round, then Mick McGowan , Barrie Bates and finally the former three-time World Cup finalist Peter Manley and thus reached the semi-finals . There he won against the " Phil Taylor- Kenner" Wayne Mardle 6-4 and met in the final on John Part , against whom he lost 2-7.

In 2009 , however, he did not get past the round of 64 and lost here against Jan van der Rassel with 2-3.

At the PDC World Darts Championship 2010, however, he made it to the round of 16 after beating Scott Burnett from the USA with 3-0 in the first round and the Canadian John Part with 4-1 in the second round . In the second round, however, he was defeated by the later semi-finalist Mark Webster from Wales with 1-4.

Shepherd was not actually qualified for the 2011 World Cup, but was still allowed to participate because Australian qualifier Rob Modra did not receive a visa and therefore could not participate. Since Kirk Shepherd held the next highest place in the Order of Merit at this time, he was set for the first round. There he lost, however, with 1-3 against Wayne Jones .

Outside of darts

Shepherd was not a full-time professional at the time of his 2008 World Cup final and initially worked in a factory as a metal worker on the assembly line, earning 8,000 pounds a year. At the press conference after the 2008 World Cup final, however, he announced that he would pursue darts as a full professional in the future. In addition to darts, Shepherd also has the 2nd  dan in karate and has already fought for the British championship here.

Web links

• Kirk Shepherd in the DartsDatabase.co.uk database
• Infodarts 2008 World Championship results
• Player profile at Dartn.de

Individual evidence

1. ^ PDC Order of Merit. Retrieved January 2, 2019 .