By Daniel Noble
A DARTS player from Dundonald is dreaming of turning professional after securing a Junior Darts Championship tour card.
Sixteen year-old Christian Ennis was awarded a place on the JDC Tour when he won a qualifying event in Bristol.
The Ashfield Boys High School student has only been playing darts for two years, having picked up the arrows for the first time when his grandmother, Sharon Brown, bought him a darts board following a serious football injury.
Christian played football all his life and while an MCL tear forced him to withdraw from the sport, it also pushed him into realising his true talent.
Since then, the teenager has gone from strength to strength, collecting so many trophies that he is beginning to run out of space for them at home.
Amongst all his accolades, are two Northern Ireland Darts Organisation (NIDO) majors, the NIDO Youth Individuals and the NIDO Youth Classic.
He has also been crowned Belfast Individual Champion and recently represented his country at the Darts Youth World Cup in Gibraltar, helping them reach the quarter-finals, before losing out to Scotland.
Christian’s burgeoning success has not only brought silverware and team selections, but also something rather unique. He is the first youth player from Northern Ireland to be sponsored by Winmau – one of the most famous darts equipment manufacturers in the world.
In his latest JDC outing, the Dundonald star travelled to England to play in the Junior Power League in Bristol last weekend, reaching the last 16 and quarter-finals in two separate events.
Now, Christian is aiming to follow in the footsteps of his darting idol, Antrim’s Josh Rock, dreaming of obtaining a second tour card, this time in for the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC).
“My favourite player is Josh Rock, with him being from Northern Ireland. The fact that he’s from here and he’s made it inspires me,” he said.
“My dream is to secure a professional tour card and play on the PDC, and my ultimate dream is to win a major, maybe even the World Championships.”
The first part of that dream could become a reality as early as next year, with Christian planning to embark on a professional career when he leaves school this summer and targeting a place in PDC Qualifying School in January.
A total of 32 tour cards will be up for grabs at Q-School, with 128 players (64 in the UK and 64 in Europe) battling it out for a place on the pro circuit, and the local could well be one of them.
