For as long as anybody can remember, Friday night has been darts night in Newry.
It was in the 1940s that darts first took root in the city, with the establishment of the Newry Darts League. Yet from humble beginnings, the league has grown into the largest in Ireland, and the second largest in Europe.
The Newry Darts League is the oldest on the island of Ireland. One of the main reasons why it has become so successful is because, for many, competing in the league has become a family tradition.
Liam Bradley, the current Secretary of the Newry Darts League, explains how his love for darts came from his father.
“My dad put a darts board up…when I was about three or four,” he recalls.
With his dad being a member of the league, Liam began competing from a young age.
“My very first year in the league I was fourteen,” he said.
Since Liam first began playing in the league thirty-four years ago, the number of competitors has skyrocketed, with over six-hundred people having signed up for the new season which begins in September.
“It was small enough back then,” states Liam, “now we have forty-five teams with fourteen players in each team”.
And as the number of competitors have increased, so too have the stakes.
According to Liam, the league “went from giving out £1,200 in prize money” when he first began playing, “to giving out over £11,000 now”.
Those who compete in the league come not just from Newry, but from all of its surrounding areas.
As Liam explains, “you have teams from Rostrevor, Mullaghbawn, Whitecross, Dromintee, Mayobridge, and Warrenpoint”.
And the league is open to anyone, no matter their background.
“It’s very cross-community,” said Liam, “it’s not just one community playing it….there’s even a Polish team playing in the league”.
Whilst every competitor plays to win, many also enjoy the social aspect of darts. When Peter Johnston first moved to Newry from Belfast, he had no idea how popular the darts league was.
“I didn’t know there was a darts league,” he recalled, “then I realised how big it actually was”.
And as somebody new to the city, Peter quickly found that joining the league was a good way “to make a lot of friends”.
Now Peter competes in the league alongside his son Conor.
“It gets you out…playing with your dad,” Conor explained, “you can’t beat that”.
Yet while the league may have ended for the summer, the darts have not stopped.
Throughout the summer, pubs across Newry have hosted one-off tournaments for those who can’t wait until September for the new season to begin.
“In Newry the darts is twelve months of the year,” said Liam, “there’s competitions all the time”.
In recent years the biggest reason for the growth in popularity of the league has been the influx of youth.
“There’s a lot of youth getting involved…over the last eighteen months,” states Liam, pinpointing one phenomenon as the cause: “The Luke Littler effect”.
Dylan Quinn is the only person in Newry who has competed against Luke Littler. At twenty-one years old, he is one of the youngest darts players in the Newry Darts League.
Dylan Quinn
And at the League Finals Night in June, he won the Youth Individuals Final, the Individuals Final, and the Pairs Final; the only time in history that somebody has won all three. Dylan is also a competitor in the Professional Darts Corporation’s (PDC) Development Tour, a series of European tournaments viewed as a stepping stone to playing darts professionally. It was at one of these tournaments that Dylan played a match against Luke Littler.
Competing against some of the best young darts players in the world has allowed Dylan to witness first-hand how quickly darts can transform from a hobby into a career.
“There’s a lot of young players breaking through now at a very high level,” he explained, “I know where them boys have started off and I know what I need to do to get to their level”.
Yet despite his ambition to become a professional darts player, Dylan’s interest in the sport began only recently.
“My dad introduced me to the game in lockdown…ever since lockdown I’ve just gained more and more interest.”
In Newry, the growth of the league has led to darts becoming more than just a game; as Peter states, it has become “its own community”.
And as this community continues to grow, many hope that Dylan Quinn can become Newry’s first ever professional darts player.
“I know I can beat anyone in the world on my day,” he said, “I’m just chasing the dream.”
