Kilcullen comes out to support future champion
Jack Courtney with his mum Marian, Dad Derek and sister Ruby.
When Jack Courtney first threw a few darts at a board in his home, South Korea was far from his thoughts. He was only five, after all. A decade later, he’s headed there in September, on the Irish team for the WDF World Cup. Before that date in East Asia, he’ll be competing on serious tours in Ireland, the UK, and on the continent. After Korea, he’ll be in Budapest, Hungary, at the World Masters and then heading back to Gibraltar on the Irish team for the Junior Darts Corporation World Championships. He’s been there before. Three times already.
He first qualified for that competition at the age of 13. The team won a silver in 2023, but were beaten in the semi-final last year. In the individuals in 2024, Jack made the last 16 of the Winmau Open, and topped his group in the knockout stages, improving his previous year's personal performance.
Most people probably figure darts as a niche sport, albeit aware of its professionalism in the UK from seeing it on TV. Germany and the Netherlands are also big in the game. But from a mainly hobby base in pubs, over recent years, internationally competitive darts in Ireland has been growing very strongly too, including at Junior level. Numbers aren’t clear, but weekend Junior competitions once played in small rooms and on perhaps three dartboards now have to use GAA halls, with up to 400 people — including parents — needing to be accommodated.
Because there wasn’t at the time a club with a specific junior level in Kildare, Jack Courtney joined Carlow Darts Club. He’s still based there and trains with the club every Wednesday evening. “I also do tournaments around the country at the weekends, and I’ll throw at home for at least an hour every day.”
Like any sport, commitment and practice are the most important underpinnings, essential companions in darts to innate skill and hand-eye coordination. Jack Courtney has all of these. In his demeanour, he’s quiet, considered in his responses. Shy, according to family close to him. He gets on well with his peer pals, in turn they’re supportive of him, texting for news when he’s away in competition.
Jack played football when he was younger. But then came weekend schedule conflicts, and darts won the eventual decision. He plays golf — his father Derek was the 1994 All Ireland Pitch and Putt Matchplay Champion, and mother Marian was the champion in European Ladies Strokeplay. His aunt Chrissie has held the World Ladies Strokeplay title. Is he as competitively focused on darts as the family has been in their sport? “You play to win,” he says simply. And you practice to play to win? “Yes, you get more consistent.”
His father Derek agrees.
“Looking from the outside, he’s always getting better,” he says. “He wins games now that he wouldn’t have two years ago.” There’s money in the professional game, and even good prize funds where Jack is playing now. But he’s not particularly considering a future as a professional dartsman. "A lot of the pros in the game are part-time, going full-time depends on your earnings." His most pressing concern just now is the Junior Cert, and then the remainder of his CPC school years. It’s simply too soon to have career ideas about anything.
Jack's parents are co-owners of The Spout Bar in Kilcullen, where there’s a strong darts-playing cohort and tradition. It can be taken for granted that there’s good support there for him, but it also crosses the wider strands of Kilcullen’s community: last November he received a special Kilcullen Community Award for Excellence in Sport. A recent support evening to help mitigate his upcoming travel costs resulted in a packed Spout. Apart from the €5 a head tickets — which had gone to a second printing — there was an auction where the top draw was a signed Liverpool FC jersey. The bidding went briskly up to a fairly heady €1,300, then a final phone bid of €1,500 closed a highlight of the evening.
Jack clearly appreciates that kind of support in his own quiet way. Also the unstinting encouragement of his close and extended family. “And the school is very good too, when I need to take days away,” he adds.
That's all part of Kilcullen recognising a champion.
