James "Jim" McQuillan (born 3 December 1940 in

Dundalk Dundalk ( ; ga, Dún Dealgan ), meaning "the fort of Dealgan", is the county town (the administrative centre) of County Louth, Ireland. The town is on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the east coast of Ireland. It is h ...

County Louth County Louth ( ; ga, An Lú) is a coastal county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. Louth is bordered by the counties of Meath to the south, Monaghan to the west, Armagh to the north and Down to the ...

) is an Irish former professional

darts Darts or dart-throwing is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small projectile point, sharp-pointed projectile, missiles known as dart (missile), darts at a round shooting target, target known as a #Dartboard, dar ...

player who has played members in the

British Darts Organisation The British Darts Organisation (BDO) was a darts organisation founded on 7 January 1973 by Olly Croft. Made up of 66 member counties, it oversaw professional, semi-professional and amateur darts competitions in Britain. The BDO was a founder ...

(BDO) &

World Darts Federation The World Darts Federation (WDF) is a sport governing body and (along with the PDC) a tournament organiser for the game of darts. It was formed in 1974 by representatives of the original fourteen founding members. Membership is open to the natio ...

(WDF) events in the 1970s and 1980s.

Playing Darts career

In 1974, McQuillan became Ireland's first ever

News of the World Darts Championship The News of the World Championship was one of the first major organised darts competitions, which began in 1927. It became England's first national darts competition from 1947, as the years went by it gradually became international essentially ...

Divisional Champion, playing out of the Vine Inn, Dundalk where he represented Ireland with distinction when he defeated Tom Bafverfeldt 2–0 and was beaten 2–1 in the semifinal by eventual winner Peter Chapman in a close match, He repeated the feat in 1978 where he finished joint 5th place. McQuillan played in the 1975

World Masters The World Masters, known for sponsorship reasons as the Mita/Sky World Masters, was a snooker tournament held between 13 and 26 January 1991. Conceived by promoter Barry Hearn, the tournament had a similar format to the Grand Slam events in tenn ...

, losing in the first round to

Alan Evans David "Alan" Evans (14 June 1949 – 12 April 1999) was a Welsh professional darts player and former World No. 1 who competed in the 1970s and 1980s. Evans was one of the early faces of television darts and had some tournament success in the ...

who went on to win the tournament. He then played in the

1979 BDO World Darts Championship The 1979 Embassy World Darts Championship was the second World Professional Championships. Having been held the previous year at the Heart of the Midlands Club in Nottingham, the event moved to Jollees Cabaret Club in Stoke-on-Trent where it was ...

, defeating New Zealand's Murray Smith in the first round before losing in the second round to Scotland's

Jocky Wilson John Thomas "Jocky" Wilson (22 March 1950 – 24 March 2012) was a Scottish professional darts player. After turning pro in 1979, he quickly rose to the top of the game, winning the World Professional Darts Championship in 1982, then again ...

. In 1977, McQuillan team Republic of Ireland on the WDF World Cup are the darts player with Seamus O'Brien, Charles Byrne and Patrick Clifford. In 1978, McQuillan team Republic of Ireland on the BDO Nations Cup are Seamus O'Brien and Charles Byrne. but who lost to Team

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

by 1–3 legs in 801 with Stefan Lord,

Kenth Ohlsson Kenth Ohlsson is a Swedish former professional darts player. Ohlsson made one BDO World Darts Championship appearance in 1978, losing 3–6 to fellow Swede Stefan Lord. World Championship results BDO * 1978: 1st round (lost to Stefan Lord Stef ...

Bjørn Enqvist Bjorn (English, Dutch), Björn (Swedish, Icelandic, Dutch, and German), Bjørn (Danish, Faroese and Norwegian), Beorn (Old English) or, rarely, Bjôrn, Biorn, or Latinized Biornus, Brum (Portuguese), is a Scandinavian male given name, or less oft ...

. McQuillan to reached the quarter-finals of

1980 WDF Europe Cup The 1980 WDF Europe Cup was the 2nd edition of the WDF Europe Cup darts tournament, organised by the World Darts Federation. It was held in Copenhagen, Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = Natio ...

in Wales, but who lost to 5 times world champion

Eric Bristow Eric John Bristow, (25 April 1957 – 5 April 2018), nicknamed "The Crafty Cockney", was an English professional darts player. He was ranked World No. 1 by the World Darts Federation a record five times, in 1980, 1981 and 1983–1985. He was ...

of England by sudden death legs on 4–3. McQuillan quit of the BDO in December 1980.

World Championship results

BDO

* 1979: 2nd round (lost to

1–2) (sets)

External links

Profile and stats on Darts Database

References

Dundalk Irish darts players Living people 1940 births British Darts Organisation players Sportspeople from Tralee Sportspeople from County Kerry {{Ireland-darts-bio-stub