Craig Brown – brother of Isle of Wight darts star Keegan – has reached the final of a pool tournament in Bucharest, Romania after being knocked out of a darts event.
Craig was in the Romanian capital to compete in the WDF (World Darts Federation) tour but, unfortunately, got knocked out in the round of 128 by Welshman David Davies – who went on to reach the semi-finals.
However, after exiting the darts tournament, Craig opted to take part in a pool tournament at the Mercury Pool Bar in the city.
Craig – who has made 6x 147s at snooker and represented England at snooker in 2017 – won 5 games 6-0, 6-0, 6-2, 6-1, 6-2 to get to the final, before going down 4-7 to Dragos Fulgeanu, one of Romania’s best pool players.
Craig said:
“After the dart weekend did not go to plan, I ended up with a medal and made more money from pool than darts.”
Last year, Craig entered 6 events on the WDF circuit in Slovakia, Hungary, Belgium, Sweden, Latvia and Ireland. His best finish was in Sweden, where he lost out 2-4 to World Number 9 Thomas Jurghens.
Craig says of his nomadic lifestyle competing in darts tournaments across Europe:
“I have no sponsors and always travel alone and get cheap flights and sleep on cardboard at airports just to save money on expenses to play and also stay in hostels sometimes in expensive countries.
“For the last 13 months, I have had to concentrate on darts and not actually practiced pool or snooker at all, and my cues are collecting dust at my house.”
He said of his weekend in Bucharest:
“I turned up to the pool bar at 14:30 with my suitcase, bag and my cardboard. I had no cue, and someone luckily gave me a cue to play with, but I still did not have a break cue or a jump cue.
“After the competition finished at midnight, I played people for money till 02:00, but looking at the time, I had to leave to go to Airport as my flight was leaving at 05:30.”
Craig is now seriously considering taking up pool again, saying:
“Now, I’m thinking of practicing again as I still have the talent so maybe in future I will start taking this seriously.
