Nathan Aspinall issued a grovelling apology for making people sit through a ‘horrific’ game of darts at the Winmau World Masters.
He secured a 4-1 victory over Cameron Menzies on Saturday night but neither player managed to set the world alight, with plenty of errors littered throughout.
They both missed a number of doubles, with the standard nowhere near as high as fans have come to expect. In the final leg of the match, Aspinall wasted three match darts before finally taking out D2 to book his place in the quarter-finals.
In his post-match interview with ITV Sport, the 33-year-old apologised to viewers for his error-strewn display and described the match as one of the ‘toughest’ he has ever been involved in.
“All I can do is apologise to the people who had to sit through 25 minutes of that,” he said. “It was very tough but I got the win in the end and showed my character and resilience. One of the toughest games of darts I’ve ever played.”
Aspinall explained that he found it hard to stay positive at times, with both players struggling to settle into any sort of rhythm.
“I think the pace of the game, the emotion that was on the stage,” he added. “I’m trying to be really positive at the moment That’s the thing with the self talk. I’m really good mates with Cammy but he’s so expressive on stage.
“He shows every single little emotion. I felt like I got dragged into that. Overall it was a horrific game of darts but it’s one I won. I’m just trying to be positive.
“Last night it was dead positive how I played the match [against Andrew Gilding]. I tried to play that game in the same way I did last night but Cammy was struggling, I was struggling. Cammy shows a lot of emotion on stage.
“The emotions I normally show are positive and I felt like I was being very negative. At the end of the day I’ve won, I’m in the quarter-finals of the first major of the year.
“I’m not going to feel too sorry for myself. I’ll go back the hotel, get a good night’s sleep and [get ready for a] big day tomorrow.”
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