Search icon

World of Sport

16th Dec 2017

Fermanagh man sets impressive record at World Championship, but it’s not enough

Valiant effort

Ben Kiely

Unfortunately for Brendan Dolan, how you finish is less important than how often you finish in Darts.

Brendan Dolan is out of the World Darts Championship. The Fermanagh native was dumped out in the first round by Scotland’s Robert Thornton at the Alexandra Palace.

This was Dolan’s second game of the tournament, having bested Croatia’s Alan Lubjic 2-0 in the preliminary round.

While it was smooth sailing in his first match, the world number 36 was well-beaten by the 2015 Grand Prix champion. Dolan did put up a fight though and turned some heads in the process.

After dropping the opening set 3-2, Dolan responded in a big way. He won three consecutive legs with three ton-plus finishes to level the score at 1-1.

Unfortunately, that was the only set he managed to take against the Scot, who claimed the next two sets for a 3-1 victory.

However, there was one standout highlight for Dolan in defeat. Those ton-plus finishes just kept racking up.

Throughout the whole match, Dolan set a new record. He amassed a staggering five ton-plus finishes, which had never been done in the first round of the tournament before. He would have liked the win, but that’s not a bad accolade to walk away with by any stretch.