Shane McGuirk (born 9 May 1995) is an Irish professional darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) and World Darts Federation (WDF) events. He is the reigning WDF World Champion after winning the 2024 WDF World Darts Championship, becoming the first world darts champion from the Republic of Ireland. He is also a former Irish Open and FCD Anniversary Open champion.
| Shane McGuirk | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal information | |||||||
| Nickname | "The Arrow" | ||||||
| Born | 9 May 1995[1] Castleblayney, County Monaghan, Ireland | ||||||
| Home town | Castleblayney, County Monaghan, Ireland[2] | ||||||
| Darts information | |||||||
| Playing darts since | 2018 | ||||||
| Darts | 23g Target | ||||||
| Laterality | Right-handed | ||||||
| Walk-on music | "We Will Rock You" by Queen | ||||||
| Organisation (see split in darts) | |||||||
| BDO | 2018–2020 | ||||||
| PDC | 2020– | ||||||
| WDF | 2018– | ||||||
| Current world ranking | 159  (24 November 2024)[3] (PDC)26  (8 December 2024)[4] (WDF) | ||||||
| WDF major events – best performances | |||||||
| World Ch'ship | Winner (1): 2024 | ||||||
| World Masters | Last 32: 2018 | ||||||
| PDC premier events – best performances | |||||||
| UK Open | Last 160: 2020, 2021 | ||||||
| Other tournament wins | |||||||
Youth events
| |||||||
Career
edit2018–2021
editMcGuirk reached the Last 16 of the 2018 World Masters, losing to 2015 BDO World Champion Scott Mitchell 3–1 in sets.[5]
He had success on the PDC Development Tour in 2019, reaching two finals before winning his first Development Tour title in Event 13, defeating Keane Barry 5–4 in the final.[6][7]
McGuirk attended UK Qualifying School (Q-School) in 2021, where he achieved a nine-dart finish but missed out on a PDC Tour Card by one point.[8][9]
2022–2023
editMcGuirk won his first WDF title after beating Andy Baetens 5–4 in the final of the 2022 FCD Anniversary Open.[10] He followed this by winning the 2023 Irish Open which granted him a spot at the 2024 WDF World Darts Championship.[11]
2024
editAfter finishing 35th on the UK Q-School Order of Merit, McGuirk competed in the 2024 PDC Challenge Tour series, averaging 100 in 5–2 victories over Max Hopp and Ryan O'Connor on his way to the quarter-finals at Challenge Tour 7 (CT7), where he lost to Dennie Olde Kalter 5–4 in a last-leg decider.[12] He reached the semi-finals at CT8, losing to Andy Boulton 5–2.[13] He reached another quarter-final at CT21, losing there to Dragutin Horvat 5–1.[14] In his first round match at CT21, he averaged 119.29 in a 5–0 whitewash victory against Stefaan Henderyck.[15]
McGuirk received call–ups for 2024 PDC Players Championship series events 9, 10, and 22 filling in as a reserve for an absent tour card holder virtue of his ranking on the Challenge Tour Order of Merit. McGuirk lost to Mario Vandenbogaerde 6–5 in a deciding leg in the first round of Players Championship 9 (PC9). At PC10 McGuirk defeated Nick Kenny 6–1 before losing to Ryan Joyce 6–2 in the second round. At PC22, he whitewashed Owen Roelofs 6–0 and won 6–2 against Vincent van der Voort, but was defeated by Mike De Decker, who averaged 101.42, 6–3 in the last 32.
At the 2024 WDF World Darts Championship, McGuirk entered the competition in the first round, where he defeated Mark Barilli 2–0.[16] He then beat Edwin Torbjörnsson 3–0 without missing a dart at double.[17] With 3–0, 4–0 and 5–0 wins over Brandon Weening, Peter Machin and François Schweyen respectively, McGuirk reached the final without losing a set. In the final, where he faced Paul Lim, McGuirk raced into a 4–0 lead against the Singaporean veteran. Lim brought it back to 4–1, which was McGuirk's first set lost in the tournament. McGuirk went 5–1 up, one set away from the title, before Lim won the next two sets to close the gap to 5–3. In the end, McGuirk won the final 6–3, whitewashing Lim 3–0 in the final set. He became the first player from the Republic of Ireland to win a senior darts world championship.[18][19][20]
Personal life
editOutside of darts, McGuirk was a former underage player with Aughnamullen GAA.[21]
World Championship results
editWDF
edit- 2024: Winner (beat Paul Lim 6–3)
Career finals
editWDF major finals: (1 title)
edit| Legend |
|---|
| World Championship (1–0) |
| Outcome | No. | Year | Championship | Opponent in the final | Score[N 1] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | 1. | 2024 | World Darts Championship |  Paul Lim
|
6–3 (s) |
- ^ (l) = score in legs, (s) = score in sets.
Performance timeline
edit| Tournament | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PDC Ranked televised events | |||||||
| UK Open | DNQ | 1R | 1R | DNQ | |||
| PDC Non-ranked televised events | |||||||
| PDC World Youth Championship | RR | RR | Did not play | ||||
| BDO/WDF Ranked televised events | |||||||
| WDF World Championship | Did not play | W | |||||
| Irish Open | Did not play | W | 6R | ||||
| Winmau World Masters | 6R | DNP | NH | DNP | NH | DNP | |
| Career statistics | |||||||
| Year-end ranking (PDC) | - | - | - | 186 | - | - | |
| Performance Table Legend | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| W | Won the tournament | F | Finalist | SF | Semifinalist | QF | Quarterfinalist | #R RR L# |
Lost in # round Round-robin Last # stage |
DQ | Disqualified |
| DNQ | Did not qualify | DNP | Did not participate | WD | Withdrew | NH | Tournament not held | NYF | Not yet founded | ||
References
edit- ^ "Shane McGuirk". Mastercaller.
- ^ "Shane McGuirk PDPA Profile".
- ^ "PDC Order of Merit". PDPA. 24 November 2024. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
- ^ "WDF Men's Rankings Table". WDF. 8 December 2024. Retrieved 8 December 2024.
- ^ "Results of World Masters Men 2018 - DartsWDF". World Darts Federation. Retrieved 9 December 2024.
- ^ Murphy, Chris (8 June 2019). "2019 PDC Unicorn Development Tour 9-10". Professional Darts Corporation. Retrieved 9 December 2024.
- ^ Gill, Samuel (17 August 2019). "McGuirk edges out Barry in last leg decider to claim maiden PDC Development Tour title". DartsNews. Retrieved 9 December 2024.
- ^ Gill, Samuel (15 February 2021). "McGuirk hits nine-dart finish during Last 64 win at UK Q-School". DartsNews. Retrieved 9 December 2024.
- ^ McCaffrey, Sean (18 February 2021). "Monaghan Darts player just misses out on PDC tour card". Northern Sound. Retrieved 9 December 2024.
- ^ Mason, Paul (25 September 2024). "McGuirk & Jansson win big at WDF FCD Anniversary Open". Darts Planet TV. Retrieved 9 December 2024.
- ^ Falkiner, Keith (12 November 2023). "Monaghan man becomes first ever home winner of Irish Open darts championship". Irish Mirror. Retrieved 9 December 2024.
- ^ Gorton, Josh (15 March 2024). "Van Leuven & Eidams celebrate maiden Challenge Tour titles in Hildesheim". PDC. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
- ^ Gorton, Josh (16 March 2024). "Brilliant Boulton goes back-to-back on Winmau Challenge Tour". PDC. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
- ^ Wood-Thompson, Lewis (2 November 2024). "Merkx and Harrysson win at Challenge Tour 21-22". PDC.tv.
- ^ "PDC Challenge Tour 21 • Last 256 Shane McGuirk (119.29) 5–1 Stefaan Henderyck (95.62)". DartConnect TV. 2 November 2024.
- ^ Gill, Samuel (30 November 2024). "Statement Shane: McGuirk produces best display so far at Lakeside and Swedish Lion Lejon sets up Van Schie showdown". DartsNews. Retrieved 9 December 2024.
- ^ Gill, Samuel (1 December 2024). "Superb Shane McGuirk continues statement showing as James Beeton impresses on Lakeside debut". DartsNews. Retrieved 9 December 2024.
- ^ Glennon, Michael (8 December 2024). "'I can't believe it' - Monaghan's McGuirk wins Lakeside World Darts Championship". RTÉ. Retrieved 9 December 2024.
- ^ "Beau Greaves wins WDF Women's World Darts Championship title for third year running as Paul Lim, 70, misses out in Men's final". Sky Sports News. 8 December 2024. Retrieved 9 December 2024.
- ^ "Marvellous McGuirk ends Lim fairytale to win 2024 WDF Men's World Championship". World Darts Federation. 8 December 2024. Retrieved 9 December 2024.
- ^ "Former GAA player wins World Darts Championship - HoganStand". hoganstand.com. Retrieved 9 December 2024.