Luke Littler rolls into Dublin on Thursday, while in Cork this morning Radek Szagański will be making his way to Kinsale with a busload of early risers. The 4.45am Bus Éireann service might not be full but there isn’t a seat to be got for the darts at the 3Arena tonight.
Szagański beat Littler in February, just six weeks after the teenager had shot to superstardom by becoming the youngest player to ever contest a PDC World Darts Championship final.
It takes something special to draw the limelight away from the big man with the red hat over the Christmas period, but that’s exactly what the then 16-year-old Xbox-playing, kebab-eating Littler achieved. For a few days during the festive period was there anybody as regularly name checked as Ally Pally’s Little Dancer? Not Comet, not Prancer, not Blitzen.
Szagański was the first player outside of the game’s elite top eight Premier League participants to beat Littler after the World Darts Championship.
Littler, Luke Humphries (who won January’s final), Michael van Gerwen, Peter Wright, Gerwyn Price, Michael Smith, Nathan Aspinall and Rob Cross will be in action in Dublin on Thursday night. The event sold out weeks ago.
The Premier League sees the big dogs of the oche competing to slice up an overall pot of £1 million. Points are accumulated throughout the 17-event series with the eventual winner pocketing £275,000 and the eighth-placed finisher picking up £60,000. There is also £10,000 on offer for each individual tournament win. This is big business.
[ Why does Ireland, with world-class pubs, not produce world darts champions?Opens in new window ]
Last December, just like Littler, Szagański also made his World Championship debut – thanks largely to October’s Players Championship victory in Barnsley.
But unlike Littler, 44-year-old Szagański operates as a semi-pro – working as a bus driver on various routes around Cork that take in Skibbereen, Charleville, Midleton and Kinsale. He’s forever moving between arrows and indicators.
At the end of January Littler scooped a £20,000 payday for winning the Bahrain Darts Masters. So far this season Szagański has mined £1,500 from the circuit.
Littler’s life changed in December, but beating Littler in February wasn’t life changing for Szagański.
“I was actually quite shocked to see the reaction it got,” says Szagański. “People were talking about it, but beating him was exactly the same for me as beating anybody in that room.
“He is the biggest talent ever, I think, but for me it was the same as playing anybody else, you focus on your own game. I didn’t feel it would get quite the reaction it did afterwards, to be honest.”
Szagański is originally from Poland but moved from Poznan to Ireland with his girlfriend Kasia in 2006 for what was initially planned as a short-term project to earn some money for their wedding.
He had worked as a pastry chef for 12 years in Poland but changed profession in Ireland and after a spell in Limerick he eventually settled in Cobh. 18 years and two kids later – Amelia (15) and Michal (13) – it’s fair to say the original plan became a more long-term arrangement.
His entrance music is Whiskey In The Jar and he had a special shirt designed for the World Championship which included the names of two cities on his collar – Poznan and Cork. There was also a Polish eagle and an Irish shamrock incorporated on the shirt.
“After playing in the Ally Pally, almost every day somebody on the bus would say something to me about darts,” adds Szagański.
“I don’t talk too much about it but after that definitely more people were mentioning it to me.”
But a couple of weeks after competing in the World Championships – where he beat Marko Kantele before losing to Raymond van Barneveld – Szagański had to return to Q-School to earn his Tour Card again. The top 64 automatically qualify, he finished 68th.
“When I lost to Barney and didn’t get to keep the card, mentally I went down a little bit for a short while but then I said, ‘Ah come on, go again.’” He did and earned his card for another two years.
Szagański, who was Polish champion in 2013, is currently competing in the Players Championship, a 30-round series taking place at various venues across England and Germany.
It was during the second tournament of that series, in Wigan on February 13th, when he beat Littler 6-5.
Szagański didn’t get much time to enjoy his shock victory, though, because the very next day Littler got revenge in a European Tour Qualifier, throwing strongly to win 6-0 at the same venue.
The wheel continues to turn. Szagański was in Germany earlier this week for tournaments five and six of the Players Championship in Hildesheim but lost his first-round matches on both occasions – the first of those 6-5 to world number 22 Gabriel Clemens. Szagański is currently ranked 134 but the aim is to climb back up the rankings.
First-round winners in the Players Championship earn £1,000, with the prize fund increasing to £15,000 for the winner and £10,000 for the beaten finalist. If you don’t win your first round, you leave empty-handed.
Szagański returned to Ireland from Germany on Wednesday morning and was literally back on the bus at 4.45am on Thursday. He should be parked up around midday.
Ultimately, pulling up at Alexandra Palace later this year is the ultimate destination again.
“That is where you want to be,” he says.
As for Thursday night’s sold-out show at the 3Arena, having been up since before dawn, the Premier League Darts probably won’t make Szagański’s must-watch list. Anyhow, if all goes to plan, he’ll be seeing Littler and co at the oche again soon enough.
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