Masters success for ‘Big Browner’

‘Big Browner’, who has thrown darts for ‘The Thatch’ in the Limavady darts league for years, made a fantastic debut on ESPN, getting to the semi-final of the World Masters despite entering as a huge underdog.

Paul Brown, who is well known in local sporting circles, told the Sentinel that his current team coach at Newtone now knows “the darts come first.”

He went in to the World Masters unranked, but caused a huge upset when he knocked out reigning champion Scott Waites in the first televised round.

He went on to make the semi-finals but narrowly missed out on a substantial purse for reaching the final when he was knocked out by Tony O’Shea.

Brown said: “I went in to it unranked - I’d never won a tournament before. I was a huge underdog going into this one. It is a massive step up from the darts I am playing in the local leagues, but if you live in the town you can only play darts at the level in the town.

“I have been practising a lot more since I’ve been injured for the football. I’ve been putting in three or four hours a day – you have to be dedicated.

“I beat the reigning champion in the round of 16, Scott Waites. I beat him 3-0 in the first TV round. That’s the first time I’ve been playing on the TV.

“It will be hard to get back on to the big TV competitions, but that is what I want to do now. It is all down to sponsorship really. It takes a lot of money, flying over to Holland and things like that, although I am heading over to Jersey now soon for a competition.

“I have the NI Open coming up in two weeks and I want to be playing in as many of those types of competitions as I can. You have to get the ranking points and that is the way to do it.

“Hopefully I will get enough ranking points to go over to Lakeside. That is the hope. It is what I am working towards now. If I can keep going the way I am going I’ll hopefully get there for 2014.”

‘Browner’ has also had a successful footballing career playing for the likes of Limavady United, ’Stute and Sligo Rovers and a host of other clubs. He can also recall a few occasions where his love of darts has caused strife with his football coaches – on one occasion he turned down the chance to compete against Linfield to take part in a darts tournament.

Paul Brown added that while he still has time to play for local club Newtone, his sights are firmly set on qualifying for Lakeside.

He told the Sentinel: “I play for Newtone now. I told my manager at the start that the darts are coming first. It has been difficult to play football and play darts at the same time. I remember playing for Institute and we had a match against Linfield.

“I had to tell the manager I was going to play in the NI Masters in the darts. I had to miss the game against Linfield altogether... against Linfield too. There was a brave row. On more than a few occasions over the years.

“I just love my darts. I’ve played plenty of games at Windsor Park and I’ve scored plenty of goals but there is nothing like getting up on that stage.”

The Limavady man has had to switch his phone off and can’t go near his facebook account with the huge surge in interest after he made his TV debut. He said: “I started off playing darts down the local pub. I played for the County and I played in big ones like the NI Open.

“I’ve met some amount of people over the years and there has been some amount of support. When I got back yesterday the phone was just going absolutely mental. I can’t go near the facebook either because I have something like 700 friend requests to get through and I don’t even think it’ll take anymore!”