"To play for your country is the greatest honour you can have," says Ray Mulvey after his selection for the Ireland team for the Island International Tournament in January.
"I always feel proud whenever I put on that shirt".
The Leitrim man's place on the Irish team was secured as he finished the year in 9th place on the Irish National Darts Organisation (INDO) rankings.
It's the third year in a row that he has made the team, a feat made all the more impressive by the fact that Ray has only being playing on the INDO ranking circuit over those three years.
Yet there is still a nagging sense of wanting to achieve more.
"At the start of the year I was targeting trying to make it into the top five in the rankings which would get me onto the Ireland team for the Europe Cup and maybe even for the World Cup next year.
"But the standard around the country is so high now that I'm just happy to have finished in the top ten again. To do it three years in a row shows a level of consistency that I'm very happy with."
MODUS:
Aside from the INDO ranking tournaments, Ray has also been one of the success stories of the popular Amateur Darts Circuit, ADC Ireland Vault events, regularly winning them.
He qualified for the Modus Super Series through ADC Ireland earlier this year, earning him a bigger profile on an event streamed weekly on YouTube.
However, honest Ray admits his appearance on Modus didn't exactly go to plan, as he struggled to pick up wins in the first three days of Group A and failed to make finals night.
"That knocked me back for a weeks afterwards," Ray says.
"Qualifying for Modus was a big deal and with the great support I've had I entered PDC Q school last January too which got me onto the Challenge Tour for the year.
"It was a great experience to play against players of that quality and has certainly helped my game in the long run."
LEITRIM:
With a new nine-month-old baby at home, Ray said he will be concentrating more on the Irish circuit in the upcoming year.
He's also looking forward to lining out for Leitrim at the INDO Inter Counties Championship at the end of February.
Leitrim has always had a strong tradition in darts, with Ray's father Robert, who is back on the county team, one of the best players there for many years.
Ray says he's hopeful the game will get even stronger in Leitrim into the future.
He said: "We were able to put a team into both the A and B championships for the first time ever this year and will have our first Youth team next year.
"The game is coming on really strong amongst the youths in Leitrim now. Charlie McDermott is the top ranked Boys player in the country while Ben Mulvey is number two in the Development Tour rankings.
"We have seen a much bigger interest in the game amongst younger players over the past year, which is probably down to the Luke Littler effect."
Never mind Littler, Ray is probably just too modest to put it down to his own exploits too.
In a poll of Irish darts fans earlier this year by Darts In Ireland, Ray finished in the top five most popular players in the country.
"I am surprised at that," he laughed. "I didn't think many would be thinking of a player like me."
AMBITION:
Another player to make that top five was Monaghan's Shane McGuirk, who recently became the first ever player from the Republic of Ireland to win the WDF World Championships.
Ray says Shane's victory shows that Irish players have with it takes to mix it with the best in the game, and should show the ambition to do so.
He said: "That win by Shane was absolutely fantastic and he showed that he was head and shoulders above a lot of the players he was competing against.
"That shows that the top Irish players can compete with the best in the world, we are showing that consistently now and its gives everyone a lift.
"I've even had people who wouldn't normally have an interest in darts stopping me on the streets to chat about Shane's World Championship win.
"I don't think it will be the last time an Irish player will win it now as we have so many good players coming through."
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