It teaches you moderation a bit.

They're not going to be able to create a more cursed bucket than the Dune II bucket.

Although, the Spider-Man one is disgusting.

What's the Spider-Man one? Oh, my God.

Alan, I'm not going to be able to describe this without...

It's like I'm describing porn.

For the new movie? Yeah, it's Spider-Man's hand with his two digits impressed to shoot the spider web.

How'd you feel?

So it was a lot different when you started, but where did the love of darts start?

Um, I think it was because the mys- mystery of my dad going out to the pub playing darts.

As a young lad, you think, "Oh, that must be magic." Um, and then my nan used to play darts, and my mum used to play darts before then.

Um, and then my nan put a dartboard up in the kitchen, and I started playing on it, and I found it quite, quite easy.

Not easy, but to do the normal things in certain areas of the dartboard and stuff at a very young age.

And then I remember watching...

And it's always really weird when I tell this story.

Mm

... understand how you can actually, I suppose, right that, yeah, mid, mid-issue.

I think you just gotta soldier on, [laughs] you know? You know, I, I think that's the hardest thing about I, I get recognized, not a lot, but quite, quite a bit at times, and that's when it's really hard when you're having a low day and you feel pretty crap.

You just wanna lay in bed all day, but you have to go out, and you ha- and it sounds really bad, but you have to smile, and you have to talk to people, and you have to give them your time because that's ...

Even when you're not at work, you're at work, and sometimes you just don't wanna do that, and sometimes you just wanna say, "Leave me alone." But being part of what I do and doing what I do, that's part of the job, isn't it, you know? And sometimes people aren't as forgiving as they could be, you know, and sometimes I don't come across as the best person, so we'll do a trade-off.

I'll try and be as good as much as I can be.

Yeah.

And then you get to an age where you think, "Sod it, poke it.

If you like it, you like it.

like a perpetual battle of balance, of intensity and freedom, and you've got to find where it is your most comfortable spot.

I think, again, with whatever you do, especially with darts, you know, there's no off-season, which is a real shame.

So, you know... you have to live the life of being a dart player rather than live the life to be a dart player.

That's the most expensive thing about darts.

It takes most of your time up, most of your time away from family and watching your children grow up.

But some players do that because they love their job and they really love their job and they love being a dart player.

And I think...

Can you please ask the machine, Phil the Power

Mm.

All those places.

And I think, I think, like I say, the...

And it's the same with whatever anyone does for a job or, you know, their career.

You, you find what works for you.

Um, and I'm not sure what that is.

I don't know if that's lots of practice, a little bit of practice, really live the life of what you do, or just push it all away and just take it as it comes.

M- Darts Masters.