“I was feeding my daughter at about 11am and my phone rang.”
One of the biggest Irish sporting upsets of all time came on Monday, when Limerick native Michael Flynn took down darts legend Michael van Gerwen 6-4 at the Players Championship 3 in Rosmalen in the Netherlands.
Van Gerwen is considered by most to be the second best player of ever, after Phil Taylor, and was beaten by Luke Littler in the final World Darts Championship last month.
The unknown Flynn was a late call-up due to a withdrawal, and only found out at 11am the day before.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio One, care worker Flynn described how his sound boss and colleagues made the last-minute journey to Holland as smooth as possible.
He said:
I was feeding my daughter at about 11am and my phone rang, it was my manager Greg. He said ‘you’re after getting called into the Pro Tour, what are the chances you can get to the Netherlands as you’re playing tomorrow?’”
It was hectic from there.
I spoke to my manager at work. She was so nice about it. She understood what was after happening and she was able to give me the time off to be able to do this.
And the lads at work just kind of filled in for me and got my jobs done and whatever had to be done.
“The baby was in her high chair so my wife took over. I was on the phone for about 20 minutes. Greg and I were looking up flights and trying to see was it possible to make it to Dublin for a flight because there was none out of Shannon that would have suited.
“We found a flight at 5:50pm so we headed for that. I packed the bags and got on the road as soon as I could.”
Flynn would lose his second-round match 6-4 to Poland’s Tytus Kanik, but is hoping the experience will help him become a permanent fixture on dart’s Pro Tour.
He is also aiming for success at the Inter-Counties Championship, starting the weekend of February 28, in both the singles category and with Limerick.
