The Tonyrefail Comprehensive School pupil stars for the Ely
Valley Miners alongside his father, brother and grandparents, for Scott’s Hotel
in the Glamorgan Men’s Superleague, by himself in the Beddau Premier League, at
county level for Glamorgan, and is even earning praise for his talents at the
Steve Brown Academy in Bristol.
His international selection through the British Darts
Organisation (BDO) at under-18 level will see him compete in the British Youth
Internationals (BYI) in Fife in Scotland in April, followed by a trip to
Hungary in July for the Europe Cup Youth.
“I came home from school and I checked my phone and I had a
text from Sue Williams, the Welsh selector, saying ‘please ring me back, this
is urgent’,” explains Morgan.
“I rang her, and she said ‘sorry to tell you, you’ve been
selected for Wales’. I just handed the phone to my father and started running
around like a lunatic.”
“He was screaming and crying and didn’t know what to do!”
adds father Lee, also a keen darts player, who along with wife Julia can drive
Morgan between 500-700 miles a month to compete.
“Sometimes it’s baffling what he can do. When those infamous
words, ‘game on’, are mentioned, he just gets on with it.”
Morgan with the practice board in the family home, sporting his new competition shirt
Being picked for Wales also means he has gained entry to the
World Youth Masters (WYM) in Hull in November as part of his prize. A singles
event, he will be facing the best young darts players from around the world.
“I’m looking forward to the BYI and also the WYM because you
know there’s going to be some good players if they have been selected for their
country.”
He has also impressed for Glamorgan, where he is ranked 47th
in the Top 50 players, alongside his brother and captain, Jordan. Playing once
a month on a Sunday, they compete against teams from other regions, which
brings Morgan face to face with new foes to test his wits against.
The Steve Brown Academies, of which Morgan attends in
Bristol, look at bringing through the darting stars of tomorrow, and push them
in to the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). It gives them national
competitions to compete in against the cream of the crop of young British darts
stars.
All these competitions can see Morgan compete up to five
times a week, meaning it is an all-encompassing hobby that has seen him leave
his other sporting pursuits, including football and rugby, behind (“his mother
does his homework,” quips mum Julia).
“Jordan has been playing for Glamorgan since he was 13
himself,” Julia explains. “Jordan is nearly 21 now, so Morgan has been brought
up with a dart board.
“His first board was magnetic, and he used to just throw the
magnetic darts at the cloth.”
“He used to come away with us when he was six or seven,”
adds father Lee. “When the boys were practicing he would just practice with
them.
“He joined his nan and gramps up the Miners when he was
nine. He only used to play at home because some clubs were fussy with ages, but
he could mark and check a board at nine.”
“Since I’ve been playing I’ve just always enjoyed it,” adds
Morgan. “You don’t know who you’re going to play and I hate losing! On a
Sunday, most people just have a laugh but I always want to win.
“It’s nice to play people you don’t know because you don’t know
how they’re going to play and it always just brings your darts on.”
One memory Morgan already has to cherish was when he got to
face two-time World Matchplay runner up Terry Jenkins in a match slightly
rigged to favour the younger player. Caller Huw Ware announced that whatever
Morgan threw would be doubled, while whatever Terry hit would be halved,
meaning there was, only just, an upset on the cards.
“In Beddau I played singles against him,” beams Morgan. “He
gave me a signed board.”
He often competes in and wins tournaments against fully
grown men, which he says he prefers to facing youngsters as he knows he has to
be on his best form.
In 2012, such form saw him hold the Beddau league record of
12 consecutive wins. In the current Pontyclun & District season, Morgan is
joint-fourth for the number of 180’s scored with three (father Lee has five),
while his highest out is 122 and he is second on the list for the ‘least darts
out’ in singles play with 14.
His displays have also led to the birth of his nickname –
Dynamite Dobbs – with father Lee explaining: “When he played in Ton Pentre, a
fella said to me: ‘that kid by there is dynamite’. So I said: ‘what do you
mean?’, and he said: ‘he’s dangerous’.
“I thought about it, and when I was asked what to put on his
shirts, I remembered what that guy said and there we go.”
It’s now a case of Morgan just working hard at his game and
trying to continually improve himself as he gets older.
“As soon as I leave school I want to play darts,” he says. “The
one person that’s really inspired me is Adrian Lewis. He’s the only world
champion to go straight from school in to the darts world.”
It’s a dream that father Lee endorses, and with the drive
and belief that Morgan displays at an age when most boys are struggling to work
life out, there doesn’t seem to be much evidence that he won’t be able to
realise his ambitions.
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