Five things you might not know about Brendan Dolan

Ireland's top ranked darts player came close to winning the World Grand Prix of darts last night but was felled by 10-time winner Phil Taylor. Here's five facts about the Fermanagh man.

By Emmet Purcell

Brendan made Grand Prix darts history on Saturday night

If you hadn't been following the ins and outs of the World Grand Prix, then shame on you, as you missed out on a piece of Irish sporting history in Dublin over the weekend. In Saturday night's semi-final against James Wade, Dolan hit a historic nine-darter.

In layman's terms, a nine-dart finish is considered the ultimate finish to a game of darts and is considered by some to be the highest single-game achievement in sport due to its incredible difficulty. Take a look at how Dolan did it below:

Although Dolan was not the first to record a televised nine-darter (that honour belongs to John Lowe in 1984) he was the first to achieve it during a World Grand Prix. Afterwards, he told reporters: "The only thing I thought when I did it was, 'I've done it before Phil' [Taylor], because he will do it!"

Indeed, the eventual champion of this year's tournament has hit the milestone while televised a staggering nine times, though Dolan beat him to it on the Grand Prix stage first.

He doesn't own the 'BrendanDolan.com' web address, and probably with good reason

Earlier this year Brendan opened his official website at the address www.brendandolan.ie. As you'd imagine, it's a glossy, highly professional site, with everything from a biography to the latest news and videos.

However, you may be wondering as to why the darts star doesn't own www.brendandolan.com. However, the '.com' site is a memorial to another Brendan Dolan, one who was the former Senior Vice-President at Car Futures and died during the attack on the World Trade Centre in 2001.

Let's just say we have a feeling that paying the family of the deceased for usage of the URL would probably be an ill-advised PR move.

Brendan began his competitive career aged just 12

If you want to be as fantastic a darts player as Brendan, look down. Are you a 12-year-old boy? If not, you may be out of luck - that's the age when Brendan began his competitive career.

Brendan's first competition was the Fermanagh Under 18 youth club competition and not only did the cheeky upstart win it, he began an incredible streak at Under 18 level for the next five years, losing just one game.

Imagine the shame of being beaten at darts by a sober 12-year-old. At least his victims during his teenage years can go on to say that they were beaten by Brendan Dolan of all people.

He admits that he needs about three or four drinks to calm his nerves before each game

As we all know, the decidedly un-svelte physique of a professional darts player is rigorously maintained through a diet of beers and scampi fries in the pub. However, most darts players don't only drink beer because it's delicious - it can be crucial in calming the nerves too.

In an interview with the brilliantly-named 'Darts, Beers & Cheers' website, Dolan admitted that "When I take three or four drinks before I play it calms most of my nerves." However, when it comes to pressure doubles, he says "a couple of deep breathes usually helps."

If you're driving to a darts tournament and are a wracked with nerves for Brendan's prospects though, we reckon just stick with the deep breaths.

He almost retired earlier this year - because he couldn't afford to play

The life of a professional darts player is not all sweetness and light. Far from it, as Brendan admits he was on the verge of retiring if things didn't go his way this year.

Speaking to RTE Radio earlier, he said, "Financially I couldn't afford it after Christmas. I was giving it to the World Championships, if I made the World Championships well and good, whatever I got there was going to start me off for next year.

"But things have changed in six days. I'm over the moon, I'm in the Grand Slam for two years, I think I've moved high enough in the world rankings to guarantee a World Championship place.

"Everything's looking a lot prettier now, there's a lot of pressure lifted off these shoulders which was hanging over me for the last eight, nine months."