NICK Kenny was just nine when he landed his first 180 on a dart board.

Now, nearly 15 years later, and the Cwmbran ace is hoping to hit a few more maximums on one of the sport’s biggest stages.

Tomorrow sees Kenny add his name to the pantheon of greats that have strutted their stuff at the Lakeside Country Club in Frimley Green, Surrey, home of the BDO World Championship.

This year’s tournament is the 40th staging of an event that has had a big Welsh presence over the last four decades.

Ynysybwl’s Leighton Rees won the very first championship in 1978, the Rhondda’s Richie Burnett followed suit in 1995 and North Walian Mark Webster struck gold nine years ago.

And that’s not forgetting the likes of runners-up Marshall James and Ritchie Davies, as well as greats of the game such as Alun Evans, a semi-finalist in 1979 and 1987.

Kenny is one of five players – four in the men’s event and one in the women’s – from Wales competing in Surrey this time around, and the Lakeside debutant, 23, simply cannot wait to get started.

But Kenny, a civil servant by day, knows he faces a huge challenge if he wants to make the second round.

At 1pm tomorrow he will take to the stage in front of a packed crowd to face world number one, tournament top seed and title favourite Glen Durrant in the opening match of the championship.

Kenny has never beaten the 46-year-old from Middlesbrough but then Durrant isn’t known for producing his best at the BDO’s (British Darts Organisation) flagship event.

Add to that the fact Kenny, like his opponent, is in good form and he will have the support of some 30 relatives and friends to cheer him on, and the chance of an upset could be a very real one.

Whatever happens, it is all going to be a far cry from when he first picked up a dart.

“My dad had a board up in the dining room and one morning me and my little brother got hold of his darts and were throwing them all over the shop,” he said.

“I think my gran bought me a board which the darts stuck to when you threw them, and then my dad got me a paper one that fell apart in a couple of weeks.

“He had a board signed by Richie Burnett and gave me that one to put up in my room.

“I hit my first 180 when I was nine and remember it as clear as day.

“My family were having a barbecue out the back and I shouted to my dad that I’d got two treble 20s.

“I threw the third dart and at first I couldn’t tell if it had gone in the treble but then I saw it had and I just started jumping around the house.

“I counted the first 100-odd maximums I had and stopped at about 130.”

He added: “I just loved darts and when I was 13 they brought me into the pub league.

“I was playing one of the boys who plays in the team now and I beat him 2-0 – everyone in the club stood up and applauded.

“I lost one game in that first season and then one of the guys took me to Brean Sands for the festival of darts and I lost in the semi-finals of the youth.

“I remember thinking, ‘whoa, there’s Martin Adams and Tony O’Shea’, and now they are my mates, it’s mad.

“I started playing Super League at 14, county darts at 15 and got picked for the Welsh youth team at 16.

“I had a really bad patch then and one of the boys said I should have a drink when I played – I didn’t really drink alcohol until I was 19.

“We were playing Cambridgeshire away and I had a couple of pints before playing Martin Adams.

“I lost but I played really well and built myself back up, and a string of good averages got me in the Welsh team, and I never looked back after that.”

Kenny, 17th in the BDO’s world rankings, spends a lot of his time playing and practicing at Cwmbran Workingmen’s Club.

It is there, and at the numerous events he travels to around the country, that he has honed the skills which have taken him to the Lakeside.

Now he is there, Kenny, one of four brothers, is determined to make the most of the opportunity.

“I’m quite relaxed about it all, I’m just hoping to play well,” he said. “Obviously, if I’m playing well I’ll have chances, then it’s up to me to take those chances.

“I’ve played on the Lakeside stage four or five times in various competitions but this will be unlike any of those.

“I’m playing in the first game of the tournament, it’s live on television and there will be loads of people watching, so I’ve just got to soak up the atmosphere.

“I’m only the second person ever from Cwmbran to get there after Richie Herbert so I’ve just got to enjoy it really.

“It will probably hit me when I’m stood in front of the camera ready to walk on, the smoke is blowing across, the lights are on me and everyone is going crazy.”

He hasn’t got a darts nickname yet but Kenny will be walking onto the Lakeside stage to ‘Freed From Desire’, the song adopted by Northern Ireland fans during Euro 2016 in support of striker Will Grigg - they changed the lyrics to 'Will Grigg's on fire'.

If Nick Kenny is on fire tomorrow afternoon then he could well be extending his stay in Surrey beyond this weekend.