Marton shearer Jimmy Samuels has become one of the new owners of Darts Shop Manukau.
Marton shearer Jimmy Samuels has become one of the new owners of Darts Shop Manukau.
A flippant comment between friends led a Marton couple to buy an online darts shop.
Jimmy “Supafly” Samuels, a competitive shearer and, with his wife Anna, the new owner of Dart Shop NZ, said he got into playing darts in 2017.
He enjoyed darts because it was something different to what he was used to, being from an agricultural background and working as a shearer for most of his life.
“Darts is an easy sport to play but it’s hard to get good at - and it’s the getting good at it part that really intrigued me,” Samuels said.
It was also a mental sport and relied on players knowing the ins and outs of the game, while also reacting well to pressure.
“You can go through all the action and throwing the dart but you’ve got to think about where you want it to go, you’ve also got to learn to play the board and not your opponent,” Samuels said.
“There’s a lot of pressure, I thought I dealt quite well with pressure - until I started playing darts.”
Jimmy “Supafly” Samuels - as he is known on the darts circuit. Photo / Facebook
The pressure of the game and needing to make certain plays could be an adrenaline rush, he said, but it could also be frustrating if it didn’t go according to plan.
Samuels’ interest in the sport led to him becoming part of the New Zealand darts circuit, where he met the Darts Shop Manukau’s owner Lorene Earnshaw.
“She pretty much took me under her wing and sponsored me as a dart player.”
The two got to know each other well, so when Earnshaw and her partner moved from Auckland to the Far North, Samuels asked what she was doing with the store.
“And she jokingly said she’d sell it to me.”
Samuels took a couple of days to think about it and then told Earnshaw he was interested in buying.
He said he had always had a dream to own a business and the venture was ideal as he knew the local darts community, and the work fit with his and his wife’s schedule.
“The original thought behind buying the business was for something my wife and I could do while I still work fulltime,” he said.
The couple purchased the business, which currently is all online, with Samuels’ wife Anna receiving and packaging orders to be sent out while he creates trade accounts and stays on top of stock.
So far business had been slow but steady as the shop was already known around the local darts scene, he said.
“It’s quite a close-knit community, the darting community.”
Samuels said his long-term goal was to open a retail store and have a team of darts players across New Zealand.
As a competitor, he said his dream, like every other player, was to play at the World Darts Championships at Alexandra Palace in London.
Finn Williams is a multimedia journalist for the Whanganui Chronicle. He joined the Chronicle in early 2022 and regularly covers stories about business, events and emergencies. He also enjoys writing opinion columns on whatever interests him.
