Paul Nicholson: Darts star to pundit and back again in time for the World Championship

In this wide-ranging interview, The Asset also talks about the importance of alter egos and showmanship in the game, why Lisa Ashton and Anastasia Dobromyslova could cause a shock this year, the mental side of the game and the potential prize of playing Gary Anderson on Friday night.

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• CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THIS FULL INTERVIEW ON SOUNDCLOUD FOR FREE!

It wasn't too long ago when Nicholson was making a name for himself with his on-stage 'bad boy' persona and even managing to ruffle the feathers of the likes of Phil Taylor, who he famously beat en route to winning his sole major title at the 2010 Players Championship.

For around seven years he was a firm fixture in all the major TV events but a combination of loss of form and injury problems meant he's only played in four since he last qualified for the World Championship in 2015.

During this period, he's become a widely respected pundit and commentator for BDO and PDC events - but he's now got his game head on after an encouraging season which also saw him reach the European Championship in October.

Back in the big time

"I’m really looking forward to it. It’s been a nice couple of weeks leading up to it because I’ve been able to have an excuse to practice as hard as I want to. The last few years it’s been about doing other things and trying to forget about the fact I’m not in it!

"This year, knowing I’m going to be gracing that stage, I can shut myself away and get those juices flowing again because if you’re a darts player, this is where you want to be.

"The first time I missed the world championship three years ago, I had competed in the last chance play-off in Coventry and didn’t get through. It was the first time I’d not been a world championship in my whole career and I felt very sorry for myself.

"I jumped in the car the very next day and drove all the way to a children’s academy in Blyth and to be honest with you it gave me a whole amount of perspective about where I’d come from and what I’d achieved. It brought me back to earth very quickly.

"Consequently, the ones afterwards I knew I just wasn’t playing well enough, putting in enough work, enough hunger and I had problems with injury. Things just weren’t going my way and the one word that resonated with me through those hard times was ‘patience’. I said to myself ‘if you can just be patient and get yourself through these niggles and challenges, one day you’ll go back there when you’re feeling good about your game'.

"This year I do feel much better about my game so being patient has got me to this point and now I’m there, I want to grasp it with both hands."

Punditry has helped life begin again 40

"The PDC allowed me to do some commentary work for the European Tour and consequently I got a few other punditry gigs like the Champions League for the BBC and Talksport for the Premier League.

"I do attribute that experience to helping me with my game. I’ve been pretty low the last few years, I’m not going to lie, but doing all this pundit stuff has built my confidence as a person again and that’s fed into my darts. My results this year have shown that.

"I’ll be 40 next year and I wish I was 22 again like Dimitri van den Bergh and Luke Humphries.

"But when you look at those young stars you see they want everything right away and the one thing that gives me hope is that the best players ever don’t tend to reach full stride until they’re a bit older.

"Just look at Gary Anderson and Peter Wright – they’re in their late 40s and playing fantastic darts – so that gives me heart."

European Championship return

"I felt like I belonged in that practice room back stage, I really did. In previous times it’s very easy to be complacent thinking you’re always going to be there. When you’ve had a big gap of not qualifying for the big events, it makes you value being part of that squad and plethora of talent.

"For me it was a privilege to be back but I did also feel comfortable because I wanted to be there. Being on that stage felt fun and that’s how I wanted it to be rather than being alien.

"When my match with MVG ended, I just wanted to keep playing, I didn’t want it to end. Playing MVG didn’t scare me either because I know in certain formats I can scare these guys. If I can keep improving steadily then there’ll be more TV appearances to come."

Alter Ego's and showmanship

"At the start of my career I wanted to bring in this separation between Paul Nicholson the person and the actor as a player. A bit like what Peter Wright does with Snakebite.

"It’s never been more applicable than now. I work as a pundit where I’m very respectful and professional for the networks and production companies I work for but when I go up on stage that all goes out of the window.

"All the Asset wants to do is win and win in entertaining style. I don’t want to do this game boring. I never have. I’ve never been that kind of player to go up there like a machine, shake the player’s hand and wave to the crowd.

"I go up there to have fun, entertain and make a difference. I want to inspire youngsters to be that kind of player. The last thing we need to sell this sport to over 100 countries are a lot of players who do the same thing. You want loads of characters and I’ve always believed that.

"Anything that gets people talking about my sport is a good thing. There’s no such thing as bad publicity! I’m just a fan of players being different on stage as long as it’s within the rules.

"Grand Slam of Darts was a very entertaining event as a whole - not just the final with Gerwyn Price - which is one of the reasons I feel this event won’t disappoint either. I think it’ll be full of surprises, full of shocks and potentially another new champion."

Why women's darts can soar

"I’m one of the biggest advocates of the ladies game because they’ve been robbed any sort of limelight in the last 15 years.

"Trina Gulliver dominated the women’s game at the incarnation of the women’s championship and since then we’ve had three won by Anastasia Dobromyslova and four by Lisa Ashton – both of whom will be at the Alexandra Palace.

"The women’s game hasn’t had the grandeur it deserves but having them included in this tournament is a really good start. These are the best players in the world flying the flag for the ladies.

"If Jan Dekker thinks he’s in for an easy game against Lisa Ashton in the first round, he’s very much mistaken. There’s a lot of people talking about an upset here – although maybe the upset is Jan beating Lisa!

"She’ll have the crowd and Jan will be in the doghouse. Lisa went and won the Finder Masters in the Netherlands on Sunday after an immense final with Fallon Sherrock, who I’m a big fan of. These ladies are upping their game and having sensational tournaments and if one of these ladies can pull off an upset it will explode.

"It’ll make young ladies want to play darts and this is what the tournament is all about.

"The women’s game isn’t lucrative – that’s why there’s decent players around the world who aren’t able to travel to the UK to get involved in more tournaments. This isn’t me being derogatory towards the BDO – they just probably feel they don’t have enough money in the pot to make this more lucrative.

"How do you get young women playing darts? You have to have people of example like Lisa Ashton of this world and Fallon Sherrock, who is young and vibrant. She can make it in this game.

"We need them to be part of something big and it doesn’t come much bigger than this. The way these girls play and the aggression they have in their game is very important and they’ll soon be able to trouble the guys.

"Wouldn’t it be great in years to come that we have a World Championship littered with both men and women?

"There’s no reason why the two sexes can’t be as good at darts as each other – I don’t care what anyone says. I remember 16 years ago when Trina Gulliver had better stats in the county circuit than anyone else and that told me that women can be as good as men in this game.

"Lisa Ashton has a game that can rival a lot of the men too – and if she gets going she can do some spectacular things."

Keeping my tour card and climbing the rankings

"My only goal at the start of the year was to earn enough money to keep my Tour Card, which it looks like I may have done. This is the end of my two years since winning back my tour card so after this tournament I will be defending money next season.

"But I think it’s very important for players not to think about what money they are defending and instead look forward to the challenge in front of them.

"All I want to do is stay in the world’s top 64 then next year do better than I did two years ago. It’s all about what you do in the next tournament, not thinking three months ahead and work out how many points you’re defending.

"If you’re thinking like that you’re not thinking about what’s right in front of you.

"I’ve done a lot of mental training over the past few years about staying in the present – I know it sounds like a cliché but ultimately it’s a very strong tactic to have. If you can stay in the present and do what you do best right now then you’ll become more dangerous.

"For me Friday evening doesn’t exist, it’s just about Friday afternoon.

"The practice this week is long, arduous, putting myself through the mill and make sure I’m ready for Friday."

Forward thinking

"Sometimes I think back to when I was very successful and try and remember how I approached certain games and think of how to mimic that now.

"But the difference is I’m six or seven years older and a different person. You have to adapt every season – or indeed every week – and I think if you can remain open minded that is a very good tool to have.

"If you can close your mind off to all these things that can help your game then you’re going to be snookered. The likes of MVG, Peter Wright and Gary Anderson are all very open minded people. Gary is very old school for me – he gets up there, he does his best and walks away. I admire that because he’s stuck to it despite having his own ups and downs over the years.

"As far as Peter Wright is concerned, he was very open-minded finding something that made him a better play, like his on-stage persona.

"With MVG he had a great start to his career winning the World Masters aged 17 but although he then had a bit of slump he realised if he kept going and going, it would eventually click. It did and he’s never let it go. But he’s always about finding that extra edge and it’s the guys who have the closed minds out there that are starting to suffer."

Friday night against Gary Anderson

"The thing about Friday night against Gary Anderson – the match doesn’t exist unless I turn up on Friday afternoon and win. If I don’t beat Kevin Burness then thinking about Friday night is futile.

"I’ll only think about Friday after I’ve won. Since the draw Kevin Burness has been my only focus. I know how he plays, I know he has a lot of passion for the game. It’s large in stature but it certainly won’t be the first time I’m playing someone taller than me!

"I’ve played on big stages before but the one thing I’ve never done before is play at Alexandra Palace the other way round. The last time I played here, the auditorium was long and thin, and now it’s wider and shallow. So that will feel a bit different for me.

"But ultimately the European Championship experience has helped me to get used to the big match atmosphere again. I’ve got big practice this week although I’ll not throw a dart on Thursday then be ready for Friday afternoon.

"Not practicing the day before a tournament goes back to something Phil Taylor used to say – he used to love putting the hours in but ultimately the day before you’ve got to let your body recover a bit from these big practices. You do put strain on your feet, knees, shoulders and wrists so it’s a very good thing to rest.

"You allow any swelling to come down and it also creates some hunger. If you don’t practice the day before, you walk into the arena so keen to practice that you are literally licking your lips. That’s how it’s supposed to feel."

Nicholson the pundit

Earlier this season at the Champions League of Darts, our Chris Hammer caught up with Paul Nicholson 'the pundit' to talk all things darts including whether the sport was missing Phil Taylor, how to reach the top, making a living from the game, veterans vs rising stars, battle scars at the oche and whether it could one day be in the Olympics.

Click play below to watch it all...

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