Goodwood Sports Club is bursting with pride as one of their regular supporters and a local darts player Grant Sampson from Brackenfell secured a big win at the PDC World Darts Championship in the United Kingdom.
After a struggle to get enough money to go overseas the club jumped in and offered its venue for fundraising events and for all the local supporters to watch Sampson as he was in action in the UK.
Grant Sampson (40), made his debut and won his first game at the World Darts Championship.
According to Sampson, he was introduced to the game at an early age.
“My uncle and father always used to play everywhere we went. That is how I got introduced to the game and I took it up as a hobby as I got older.”
Sampson said he got married, had kids and then Covid happened.
“I was a big TV head, and we only had one TV in the house. My kids were complaining about me taking up too much of their television time, so my wife told me to put the dartboard up, which I did, and I started playing a lot. Soon I started playing in leagues and began to win. That is how my hunger started for the game.”
Beating Devon Petersen
“I entered the African Qualifier when I heard Devon Petersen had to come back home to qualify.
“They held a qualifier and I beat him, he is the only African in the PDC World Championship at the moment, so when he came back home, I entered and played well enough to beat him. That is how I got into the world championship,” he said.
According to Sampson, with the things he had to endure, he has done well, but not close to his potential.
“But a win for me is a win for every African back home.”
Took a bus to compete
Sampson explained that he was the only player who had to take a bus and walk from where he was staying.
“I had to repeat this when I was done playing as well. It was one of the challenges we were facing.
“Not just concentrating on my darts was exceedingly difficult because funding for us from Africa was challenging, we did not get a lot of funding. We do not have much sponsorship, one of the biggest challenges I had to face. Everything is expensive over here, paying for hotels, food, paying for travelling, that is a big learning curve.”
Sampson said he had to raise his own funds to get to the world championship, “we did not even raise that much.”
Raising funds to go to Germany
“So, I must travel back home on Monday 19 December and start raising funds again for my trip to Germany where I will be competing at Q-school.
“It was heartwarming to see all the support back home, everybody watching the game from one venue, shouting, and cheering for every 180 or every close, it was beautiful to see people come together, to support one person representing,” Sampson said.
“Beating Keane Barry was the most awesome moment in my life. It is going to stay with me for the rest of my life. Winning on the world stage on the world championship, the grandest stage of it all, that for me was awesome, it is another feeling, playing back home in front of little people and coming here playing in front of thousands of people and millions watching, is just a different feeling on its own.
“I could have done so much better in my second game, but that just did not happen. As I said it is a learning curve, it is something new, now we go into experienced, so I cannot wait to get to Germany to compete there.”
- Anyone who wants to come on board as a partner or sponsor can contact Sean on 064 249 4922 or at sean@prosportinternational.com
