I quit my factory job after winning £50k at the World Darts Championship - but it all went wrong and now I'm qualifying as an electrician
Share:
Kirk Shepherd, a name once synonymous with promise and potential in the world of darts, has experienced a career marked by both stunning highs and difficult lows. Known for his breakthrough performance in the 2008 World Darts Championship, Shepherd's journey is one that has left an indelible marks upon the sport.
![[Shepherd stormed to the 2008 World Darts Championship final but narrowly lost]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/27/11/93515453-14229597-image-a-10_1735298100398.jpg)
At just 21-years-old - and with odds of 1000-1 - Shepherd stormed the competition 16 years ago and reached the final, before narrowly losing to John Part. Despite the defeat, Shepherd pocketed a comfy £50,000 for his troubles and, self-admittedly, his life changed overnight.
![[Years later, Shepherd admits that 'I went a bit doo-lally and got carried away by it all']](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/27/11/93515455-14229597-image-a-11_1735298105149.jpg)
However, 16 years on from the monumental success, Shepherd has admitted that he's since gone on to new endeavours and is now 'just plain Kirk Shepherd'. Speaking to the Daily Star, he said: 'I went from being a normal lad working in a factory to back-page headlines and a nice big pay cheque. After that, the devil came for me.
Kirk Shepherd experienced a darts career marked by both stunning highs and difficult lows. Shepherd stormed to the 2008 World Darts Championship final but narrowly lost. 'I went a bit doo-lally and got carried away by it all. I thought everything was going to fall on a plate for me and it was the start of a new beginning, a bright new dawn, but I stopped putting in the effort. I got lazy.
'From earning £50,000 as runner-up at the World Championship in 2008 and having some wealth, four years later I was living on my own in a flea-ridden one-bed flat. 'I've been qualifying as an electrician at a firm called Bilfinger in Haydock. I don't think they knew who they were taking on at first, but now I am just plain Kirk Shepherd, not the 1,000-1 outsider who reached the final at Ally Pally..
