Kirk Shepherd’s remarkable run to the 2008 World Darts Championship final is one of the most captivating Cinderella stories in sports history.. The unheralded contender, facing odds of 1000-1, toppled a host of darts heavyweights en route to his final clash with John Part, pocketing a handsome £50,000 prize despite not securing the championship title. At age 21, the Kent native catapulted from relative anonymity to challenge Part in the finale, only to succumb by a wide margin.. Overnight, Shepherd’s life was upended; the days of balancing dart practice with his job at a sheet metal factory gave way to financial comfort and a dizzying spell of celebrity. Yet, this abrupt shift to affluence and ensuing complacency precipitated a downturn in his career, leading to the forfeiture of his tour card nearly three years ago at 37, following battles with dartitis.. In a candid reflection shared with The Daily Star, Shepherd revealed: “I went from being a normal lad working in a factory to back-page headlines and a nice big pay cheque,” and admitted, “After that, the devil came for me. I went a bit doo-lally and got carried away by it all.. “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.”. Dartitis, a condition likened to the “yips” in golf, where fine motor skills are lost, led to Shepherd experiencing anxiety and panic attacks, causing him to step away from darts for nearly three years. With support from the PDC and PDPA, he claims to be in a better place now.. “I’ve been qualifying as an electrician at a firm called Bilfinger in Haydock,” Shepherd says. “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.”
