We sat down with Fitzdares ambassador Nathan Aspinall to discuss what it’s really like during the biggest event on the darting calendar.
Finding time to relax during the biggest tournament of the year is one of the hardest things about playing at the World Championships. I spend a lot of time with Chris Dobey; he’s a great mate of mine. If I’ve got an evening match, we might go and play a few frames of pool in the day or I’ll pester someone to get a round of golf in.
Away from sports, I love a cheeky Nandos. Medium butterfly chicken, with coleslaw and peri peri fries and a hot quarter chicken on the side is my go-to.
But there’s nothing quite like the Ally Pally. It’s the big one, the one that everyone wants to win. The one where a good two and a half weeks can change your life. It’s the reason we all picked up a set of darts in the first place – to one day have a chance of becoming world champion.
Nothing else even comes close to the atmosphere. Obviously the beers, particularly during the evening session, play a massive part in that, but there’s just an incredible feelgood factor reverberating around the venue. People get dressed up, they’re enjoying the festivities, and ultimately they’re there to have a seriously good time. The fans pay their money and it’s my job – along with the rest of the players – to put on a proper show for them.
I’ll up my practice hours leading into the Worlds. This year I skipped the Players’ Championships in Minehead. “Get four weeks of solid, thorough practice, Nath,” I thought. So often I’ve found that, because the schedule is so compressed, I’m always travelling from one tournament to the next, so I never get the chance to sit down and take stock when things aren’t going my way. It’s different this year.
I’ve teamed up with Michael Smith (‘Bully Boy’) as a practice partner, another great friend of mine (and the reigning world champion). Most days, however, I do what most normal parents do, starting with dropping my little girl off at school. Then I make the one-hour drive to see Bully Boy. We chuck treble 20s for about two hours before it gets serious. Anyone with a PDC card can hit 140s and 180s for fun – it’s the finishing where we make it pay.
After chatting away for a while and taking the piss out of someone (usually Chris Dobey), we’ll get into the nitty gritty. Our finishing this year has been absolutely crap, so that’s the meat of it these days. We’ll play a game where we get nine darts between us to check out 121. Once that’s done we go to 122, 123, 124, all the way up to 170. If we miss, we go back to the start. It’s tough but it’s a great drill for working on our finishing.
“The walk-on song is blasting out the speakers and there are 5,000 drunk fans screaming your name.”
On to match day and preparation is pivotal – “fail to prepare…” and all that. I’m up at 8am, try to keep some breakfast down (which is a struggle as the butterflies kick in), do a bit of media and head to the venue a good three hours before my match. I’m then straight to the practice boards to get my eye in.
It’s go time, and I’ll say: “Right, Nath, let’s have a good 40-minute spell here.” A bad 40 minutes and I’m going home. The walk-on song is blasting out the speakers and there are 5,000 drunk fans screaming your name. Time to bring your best. Once that first maximum goes in or I get my first leg on the board, it just becomes a game of darts. The shackles are off and I’m able to enjoy it.
Winning the Worlds would mean everything. I’m a Matchplay champion, one of just six major tournaments on the calendar, but I’d swap that for a place in the final if you offered it to me right now. If I can win it, I’d imagine the celebrations would be suitably big. We’d throw a huge party and I’d get absolutely steaming with all my closest friends and family… there’d be a lot of white wine, it’s fair to say! It would be pretty raucous – let’s hope we can see it for real in a few weeks’ time…
Nathan Aspinall is a darts major champion and a Fitzdares ambassador.
