Radio Ulster misses ‘Carrontreemall Kid’ on big stage

By Phil Flanagan

Fermanagh's Brendan Dolan – Ireland's Number One

THE BBC Radio Ulster Evening Extra sports bulletin top story on Tuesday was the Manchester City v Aston Villa soccer match, with a detailed report from BBC 5 Live’s John Murray (City won 4-0, by the way).

This was followed by details from the rest of the day’s English Premier League games.

Next up was news that Tony McCoy fell off yet another horse, didn’t win the race and may miss another outing.

Not much new there then from a man with more than 700 falls and countless broken bones.

Following this was hysteria over England’s then impending Ashes victory over Australia in the cricket.

Yet, in all this time, there was no mention of a man from Belcoo, County Fermanagh, Ireland’s Number One darts player, who was taking to the TV stage in an hour’s time to compete in the second round of the biggest darts competition in the world, live on Sky Sports 3, against Wes Newtown, the world number 15.

Brendan Dolan reached the second round following a fantastic victory over Kevin Painter, the top darts players in the world. Painter was a finalist in 2004, where he lost to Phil Taylor in what is now widely credited as one of the greatest televised matches in the history of darts and one of the most dramatic matches of all time.

Brendan (who is, ironically, a painter and decorator by day) deserves better than this from the BBC and so do his many supporters.

BBC Radio Ulster’s failure to properly and fairly promote local sport is nothing new but I must admit I was very disappointed at their failure to promote this match.

Perhaps, it’s simply because Dolan was playing in the Professional Darts Corporation competition and not the World Professional Darts Championships, which is televised on the BBC every year. Maybe it’s because the competition was on a rival channel (if so, so much for commitment to broadcasting local news).

As it turns out, Brendan lost 4-0 to Newton with things not going his way at key stages in the match but the 'Carrontreemall Kid' can be satisfied in the knowledge that many of us are proud of his achievements and will continue to support him in the future.

Let's hope the BBC do too.