Darts: Kiwi players chase the pro dream

Mick Lacey played Warren Parry at SkyCity on Friday. Photo / Getty Images

New Zealand's darts players are fighting a similar battle to superheroes. Trying to juggle two lives is never easy and, without support from sponsors, a career in darts wouldn't be possible here.

While superheroes toil into the night fighting crime, darts players are practising again and again ... and again.

Mick 'The Lone Wolf' Lacey returned to the game 18 months ago after 10 years away. By day, the 38-year-old from Mt Wellington is a sales and contract manager. By night, he's firing arrows at a dart board in preparation for tournaments in New Zealand and overseas.

The latest sees him as one of eight Kiwis competing in the Sky City Super League Darts which opened in Auckland on Friday night and continues this Friday and Saturday.

"It's pretty full-on," said Lacey. "There's a lot of practice. Like any hand-eye coordination sport, you've got to be playing all the time. I've been doing about two to four hours practice a night over the last four or five weeks.

"There's a lot of travel involved. I've played a couple of tournaments in Australia and you fly Friday and fly back home on Monday. I'm probably luckier than most because I've got some pretty good sponsors. You couldn't do it by yourself.

"At the moment there's probably not the sponsorship dollar-wise for players. It's quite tough travelling around. There are 15 tournaments on the DPNZ tour in New Zealand. It ranges from Auckland to Invercargill and we play for $500 first prize and, if you're flying to Invercargill, there's your winnings taken."

Lacey had to recover from a darts injury earlier in the year but fought his way back to fitness to compete in the Sky City Super League tournament. He was beaten 7-1 by Warren Parry in the first round on Friday.

"I had tendonitis in my elbow. It's not the best injury to have as a darts player but it was just wear and tear. I'm over it and I can throw for two or three hours without any pain."

Lacey's son came up with his 'Lone Wolf' nickname because he was accustomed to travelling to tournaments on his own.

His family has plenty of sporting pedigree, including his mum who played darts for Queensland, and Lacey previously managed the Warriors reserve grade rugby league side.

Lacey still has ambitions of making darts his full-time profession and getting on to the UK darts tour, where millions in prizemoney is up for grabs.

New Zealand fans will next month get the chance to see the world's best darts players at the Auckland Darts Masters. Auckland is one of the legs in the PDC World Series which features the likes of 16-time world champion Phil 'The Power' Taylor, world No 1 Michael Van Gerwen and world champion Gary Anderson.