IT’S HYP HYP HOORAY FOR ‘THE BULLET’
STEPHEN BUNTING feared he was in the last trance saloon to lift a TV title before hypnotism turned him into a winner.
‘The Bullet’ landed his first major on the PDC circuit, after 10 barren years, when he trousered the £65,000 winner’s loot at the Cazoo Masters (above, with the trophy) in Milton Keynes on Sunday.
His 11-7 win in the final against Michael van Gerwen (below), posting an impressive 102.50 average, was only the second time Bunting had beaten the Dutch master in almost eight years.
And 2014 Lakeside world champion Bunting, 38, attributes his new form to working with Prescot-based hypnotherapist Chris O’connor every week.
He insists it is not a question of a stopwatch dangling in front of your eyes but a scientific method of banishing negative thoughts.
Bunting said: “A one-hour session with a hypnotist helps you to focus, it helps you look at all the positives and stop looking at the negatives.
“Your mind is 95 percent negative so everyone of us will be in the negative side of the brain without even knowing it.
“I don’t think there are many players who have dipped into that (positive) side, but to have that extra one or two percent has helped to make me a champion now.
“I had to do something about my form because it was getting me down. It was awful – I was walking into events and I felt like everyone was laughing at me. I felt like no matter what I did everything was going wrong.
“I was taking it out on my family and locking myself away. I was depressed, it was an awful place to be. Thankfully working with a psychologist and hypnotist has helped.
“To be honest, I was against it (consulting a psychologist) at first but I thought I needed to do something and that was probably the last step that I could take and I went.
“He taught me how to think – not just about darts, but your family, your home life. I know they say in Peter Pan you think about happy stuff and you can fly, but it is the same sort of logic in darts.
“If you turn up and you are feeling happy, then you can win anything.” Liverpool fan Bunting admitted his Masters triumph would not make up for the shock of manager Jurgen Klopp leaving the club at the end of the season.
But the German’s farewell on the last day of the season promises to be Bunting’s biggest day at Anfield since he paraded the Lakeside trophy there in 2014.
The Bullet said: “I actually felt like I lost a family member. I was absolutely devastated.
“I would love to do something like that trophy parade again.
“I remember Steven Gerrard looking at me and thinking, ‘Who’s he?’ But it was a special day.”