We came away with a good win, 7-2 on the night. After the darts had finished we returned to our own pub for a few games, and I could not miss. Adrian Gray and I were preparing ourselves for a long weekend.
At midnight, we left the pub and made our way to Stansted Airport for a very early flight to Cork.

We grabbed an hour of sleep in the luxury of my car in the long stay car park, before heading off to the terminal to check in.

Our flight was at 6.30am, I was by this time officially tired! We arrived in Cork at around 7.45am, and then queued for an hour to get our hire car, before driving down to the venue in Killarney.

Saturday's competition was a non-ranking event, and had attracted 360 entries, mainly Irish, and very good players. I was drawn out last, and had to sit around for a couple of hours before I was to play.

I won my first match 4-0, then found myself up against another young Irish lad, William O'Connor, who I later found out is one of the best new players in Ireland. He beat me, but I wasn't overly bothered as Sunday was where I needed a good result… and to be honest I wanted some food and a good night's sleep more than anything!

We also met up with my uncle on Saturday, as he lives near Killarney, and we were staying with him that night. We sampled some beautiful countryside on the way to his house, and had a fantastic meal in Kenmare on the way there.

Up early on Sunday, and back to Killarney. Got some practice in, and felt very much more refreshed than the previous day.

My first match of the day was a prelim against Chris 'O' Connor. I managed to get a 6-0 win in this match, and this gave me confidence going into the next round.

My next match was against Brian Doheney, and my first leg was awful...and it was to get worse! At the start of the second leg, let's just say I needed to take a short comfort break – considering I'd had one about 10 minutes prior to the game starting, I was a bit concerned!
Anyway having this on my mind was not helping matters, as it is hard to throw properly with your legs crossed!

I decided to speed things up as desperation was now setting in. To my surprise, I casually hit a 180, from then on my opponent started to struggle and I eventually won 6-4.

Next up was Paul Nicholson, a Geordie-born Aussie, who it appears everyone loves to hate in the crowd.

We had a great match, which he won 6-2, but if I had hit doubles at the right time, it could have been much closer.

I was pleased though, as I had made the prize money, and more importantly had moved up the world rankings. I'm now ranked 183rd overall in the world, and have moved closer to a qualifying position in the Tour Card race.

Nicholson went on to reach the final, where he was beaten by Phil Taylor, so I had lost to the runner-up.

Back home on Monday I received a text from my Monday captain asking whether I could play in the league cup final that night.

I was hoping for a quiet night in to catch up on some sleep, but decided right at the last minute to go along.

I was up first, and played John Read, an Eastbourne superleague player. He was ahead all the way in the first leg, but I checked out on 100 to win, I then woke up to take the win in 13 darts. Our team went on to win the Cup, with Freddie Williams hitting the winning double in the pairs.

On Tuesday I popped in to see Steve Holliday in Final Score Sports in Heathfield. After chatting about darts for a while, he asked if I was available that evening – well, you can't turn down your sponsors can you?

Off to the Bell at Burwash I went, and played well all night, winning in the singles, pairs, and the triples. The match went to a deciding leg, and unfortunately our team came second, a good night though.

Wednesday saw the start of a singles league in Hastings. The bubble finally burst this evening as I lost my two opening matches 3-2.

Not to worry though, there are another 17 weeks to go!

This weekend we are heading off to play in two more PDC events, this time in Nuland, Holland.