Aden Kirk (born 3 March 1992) is an English professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He is also a published children's book author with Austin Macauley Publishers. Kirk is most known for his third round victory over Phil Taylor at the 2014 UK Open, regarded as one of the biggest shocks in darts history.
Career In 2014, Kirk reached the last 64 in two of the six UK Open qualifiers to enter the event in the first round stage. He beat Conan Whitehead 5–4 and Gerwyn Price 5–2 to face 16-time world champion Phil Taylor in the third round. In Kirk's first televised match, he caused a big upset by beating Taylor 9–7. He then played Peter Wright, who had been the World Championship runner-up at the beginning of the year, and continued his amazing run by taking out two ton-plus finishes and coming back from 5–3 down to triumph 9–5. In the fifth round Kirk and Brendan Dolan shared the first 14 legs, before the Northern Irishman won the match with two 13 dart legs. Kirk earned £5,000 for his run in the tournament, by far the biggest of his career to date. In July, Kirk reached the final of the 12th Challenge Tour event of the year where he was edged out 5–4 by Brett Claydon.
In April 2015, Kirk won the third Development Tour event of the year. He saw off Jamie Lewis 4–3 in the semi-finals and Benito van de Pas 4–1 in the final. Kirk reached the last 16 of a PDC event for the first time since his UK Open exploits at the 15th Players Championship with victories over William O'Connor, Justin Pipe and Ronny Huybrechts, before he lost 6–1 to Peter Wright.
Kirk won 2016's 11th Development Tour event by beating Keegan Brown 4−3 in the final. He also reached the final of the 16th event and lost 4−1 to Dean Reynolds. He finished third on the Order of Merit, but won a two-year Tour Card after first placed Reynolds decided to remain in the BDO.
World Championship results PDC 2019: 1st round (lost to Gabriel Clemens 0–3)
Performance timeline PDC Players Championships Season 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 2014Did not participateWIG2RWIGDNPWIG2RCRA1RCRA2RCOVDNPCOV1RCRA2RCRA1RDUB2RDUB3RCRA1RCRA1RCOVDNP 2015Did not participateCRA1RCRA3RBAR1RBAR1RWIGDNPBAR4RBAR2RDid not participate 2016Did not participateBAR1RDid not participate 2017BAR3RBAR2RBAR1RBAR1RMIL2RMIL1RBAR3RBAR1RWIG2RWIG1RMIL2RMIL2RWIG1RWIG1RBAR2RBAR2RBAR2RBAR2RDUB1RDUB1RBAR1RBAR2R 2018BAR1RBARDNPBAR1RBAR1RMIL1RMIL2RBAR1RBAR2RWIG3RWIG1RMIL1RMIL1RWIG1RWIG1RBAR2RBAR3RBAR1RBAR1RDUB2RDUB1RBAR1RBAR1R 2024WIG1RWIG1RLEI1RLEI1RHILDNPLEI1RLEI2RDid not participateMIL1RMILDNPMIL2RMIL1RMIL1RDid not participateLEI1RLEI1RDid not participate 2025WIGDNPROS2RROS2RDid not participate 2026Did not participateWIG1RWIG1RMIL1RMIL1RDid not participateMIL2RMIL1RWIG2RWIG1RLEI1RLEI2RDid not participateROSROSLEILEI
References
External links