MICHAEL van Gerwen suffered one of darts’ biggest ever upsets after losing to an Irish care worker in front of a home crowd.
Michael Flynn defied the odds to beat the three-time world champion 6-5 in Monday’s first round of the third Players Championship.
Van Gerwen, 35, was beaten on home soil in Rosmalen, the Netherlands.
Flynn’s average of 92.41 in the match was lower than Van Gerwen’s 97.01 but he held his nerve at the crucial moments.
The 32-year-old works in social care in County Limerick in his day job and was only added to the PDC event’s entry list on Sunday morning.
His inclusion came after several late withdrawals from the tournament.
The last-minute phone call meant a three-hour dash by car from his home on the west coast of Ireland to Dublin airport.
Flynn told the BBC: “MVG wasn’t the name you want to see as your first opponent – you’d hope for an easier game.
“I knew my form was good coming into the tournament but to beat a three-time world champion is a massive moment in my career.”
Flynn – nicknamed ‘the Flyer’ – is ranked 11th on the Challenge Tour, which is used as a reserve list for Players Championship events.
Van Gerwen appeared in his first Players Championship tournament of the year at the Autotron Centre.
In the end, Flynn was beaten 6-4 by Poland‘s Tytus Kanik in the next round but was proud to get past the PDC world championship finalist.
He added: “When you are playing someone like Van Gerwen you have to tune in from the get-go.
[bc_video account_id=”5067014667001″ application_id=”” aspect_ratio=”16:9″ autoplay=”” caption=”Luke Littler shows his class and puts Van Gerwen feud behind him with amazing gesture after rival’s ‘baby’ blast” embed=”in-page” experience_id=”” height=”100%” language_detection=”” max_height=”360px” max_width=”640px” min_width=”0px” mute=”” padding_top=”56%” picture_in_picture=”” player_id=”default” playlist_id=”” playsinline=”” sizing=”responsive” video_id=”6368394537112″ video_ids=”” width=”640px”]“It opened my eyes to the professional circuit, the standard you have to be at from the off if you want to get a win.
“It will give me confidence moving forward and shows me my game is there if I can continue it and take it back to the Challenge Tour.”
World No 10 Chris Dobey won the overall tournament with a comfortable 8-4 victory over Dutch outsider Jelle Klaasen in the final.
The second part of the Rosmalen double-header will take place on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Van Gerwen suffered early exits in the Dutch Masters and World Masters after finishing runner up to Luke Littler at Ally Pally.
He did enact some sort of revenge on world champ Littler after beating the teen in the quarter-final of the first night of Premier League darts.
But he subsequently lost to Luke Humphries in the semis, before being crushed by Littler in the semis on the second night in Glasgow.