Fairytale stuff for Brendan Dolan

Brendan Dolan defied all the odds to hit a nine-darter and reach the World Grand Prix final

In darts, there can be no better feeling than hitting a nine-dart finish.

It represents perfection and the culmination of years, perhaps decades, of hard work.

In recent years, it has become the norm for a nine-darter to be hit in most televised tournaments, but it remained the holy grail at the World Grand Prix in Dublin. Until yesterday.

The tournament is unique due to its double start format, making it even harder to reach perfection as the double would have to be hit with the first dart, followed by seven big trebles and a bullseye.

This is the 14th staging of the Grand Prix, and up until now a nine-darter had not been hit.

As the standard of darts increased over the last few years, it seemed inevitable that duck would be broken sometime.

The most likely candidate of course was Phil Taylor, who has had a number of near misses for the elusive nine-darter, while others in contention would be greats of the game like Raymond van Barneveld, James Wade and John Part.

Darts legends Taylor and van Barneveld have never hit a nine-darter with a double start

However, nobody could have predicted how the run without a nine-darter was going to end.

Brendan Dolan had already had a fairytale story to reach the semi-final.

As the world's number 36, nobody could have expected him to get so far.

He has been a decent player for a number of years, but up until this week it had been an achievement for him to simply reach major tournaments with no major successes to his name and his best televised performance being when he reached the last 16 of the UK Open three years ago.

Remarkably, he hit the nine-darter in the eighth leg of his semi-final against James Wade to send the Irish crowd potty.

What makes it even more remarkable is that Dolan is an Irishman - albeit Northern - himself.

Of all the people to hit the first nine-darter in Dublin, it was incredible it turned out to be by an Irishman.

Ireland hasn't even come close to producing a winner of the Grand Prix, so it is a magnificent achievement by Dolan.

It would have been easy for him to lose concentration after the euphoria of the nine-darter, but he kept his cool and somehow kept up his unbelievably high standard.

Not many gave him a prayer of defeating Wade, the defending champion, but Dolan produced the darts of his life to thrash him 5-2 and set up an unthinkable final with Phil Taylor.

Wade cut a frustrated figure as he was outplayed by Dolan

He started the legs brilliantly, regularly hitting the double 20 with his first dart, and that was perhaps the key to his victory.

Dolan also regularly found the treble 20 with the first dart in his hand and often followed that up with two more, while his checkout conversion at the end of legs was decent despite some slip-ups.

Wade didn't play badly - although he should have made it 4-3 in sets only to unprofessionally go for two double tops on 80 with three darts in his hand, with Dolan then mopping up his finish to take the match after Wade missed - and he can go away thinking he was simply beaten by a player who could do very little wrong on the night.

It is hard to determine which was Dolan's biggest achievement, winning the semi-final or hitting the nine-darter, but it was a remarkable double and a double which will go down in darting history.

Everyone will now remember the name of Brendan Dolan, the plucky underdog who defeated all the odds to reach greatness despite having a poor year.

It will be an even bigger task of course to beat Taylor, the best player who has ever lived, and the likelihood is Dolan will simply have too much to do to defeat 'The Power'.

Taylor has been in supreme form and may have too much for Dolan in the final

Whatever happens though, this will go down as by far the best week of Dolan's career and to do it in front of his adoring fans will have made it all the more special.

Dolan reaching the final of the World Grand Prix will be talked about for years to come, as will his historic nine-darter.

He admitted after the match he had only ever hit three or four perfect legs in practice throughout his entire career, and they were under normal rules with no double start.

So to produce that leg under those circumstances in front of his home crowd and in his first major semi-final is almost a miracle.

The way Dolan reacted to the perfect leg was very cool, calm and collected. It was as though he had just done something routine, something he does every week, but inside he must have been filled with joy and excitement.

Taylor hit his highest-ever average in this tournament with 103 in his semi-final win over Richie Burnett, and will start as the huge favourite to win his 10th Grand Prix crown.

However, nobody will ever be able to take this away from Brendan Dolan and his story of this tournament will go down as one of the most remarkable in darts.

There may yet be another chapter to write with the final against Taylor tonight, but whatever happens, his story is sure to be a best-seller.