PDC WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

DARTS

BY CRAIG SWAN GARY ANDERSON reckons gamesmanship is changing the face of darts.

But even though he hates it the Scottish hero is adamant he won’t let outlandish behaviour force him off the oche.

Controversial on-stage antics are growing in the modern-day game.

Anderson ended up at the centre of it last month when Gerwyn Price’s raucous celebrations during the Grand Slam Final went, in the eyes of most observers, over the score.

Then this week James Wade was forced to apologise after a shameful scream in the face of World Championship rival Seigo Asada, which saw him slammed for “bullying” and “thuggish” behaviour by former pro Wayne Mardle.

Anderson can’t stand it. From the old school the 47-year-old doesn’t understand some of the carry-on as he prepares to take on Dutchman Jermaine Wattimena in the third round tonight.

He said: “It’s not the game I used to play. It’s not.

“I have played darts a long time and if it is going to go down that road carry on. I will go fishing instead. That’s my motto.

“Darts is very simple. Yes, you celebrate at the right time. Yes, you do a bit of celebrating if you take a leg or win a set. But at the same time you throw your darts, take them out of the board, you walk past and that is it. It’s quite simple. Not rocket science.”

Anderson though insists it won’t get the better of him.

He said: “I’ll never walk away. I’m not that sort of person. I will just stick my ear plugs in and get on with it.

“Or take a paper and have a read of the paper.”

The two-time Ally Pally champion was also involved in a less serious and more amusing controversy over the infamous fartgate incident.

Grand Slam opponent Wesley Harms accused him of breaking smelly wind on stage in Wolverhampton last month.

Anderson hit back strongly in a Dutch TV interview that went viral on social media.

He said: “You have got to have a laugh. It wasn’t supposed to be going out live.

“I am old school. I like to have a laugh and joke. Nowadays you have to watch what you say – which to me, that is not life. You have to laugh and have a carry-on, do what you MORE AT DAILYRECORD.CO.UK used to do. If you don’t, it doesn’t work. I got a rollocking.

“My response was, ‘They should have vetted it before it went out and that’s it’.

“I get on well with the Dutch lot and we have a laugh. But they stunk me up there – or stitched me up.”

Rather than worry about controversy, Anderson has enough on his plate worrying about his body. Back issues have dogged him for more than a year and he’s turned to young son Tai to be his medic.

He said: “I am struggling but I have learned to bite the bullet and get on with it. It was the back. It’s everywhere now.

“It’s right down my neck, my back, my left leg. I don’t know what it is. My osteopath has packed it in. Disappeared. I will have to find a new one.

“I normally get Tai to walk up and down on it. He has bonnie little feet, which is sometimes lovely.

“I need to get the neck done and see what happens. I need to get it done. Wear and tear? I don’t know. I’m trying to think about what I have done. It could have been lifting the baby for the last year. Maybe wearing glasses and having to throw slightly different with the glasses on. It hurts.

“It’s especially the middle of my back on the right-hand side when I lift my hand up. I kept dropping low. That’s because I can’t get my hand high enough.

“When I start going for 19s you know I am struggling with the height of 20s. But I don’t do doctors. It’s life, box and the doctors are in between. That is the way it is going to go for me. I don’t want to know.”

GARY ANDERSON ON BOUT OF OCHE ANTICS

DARTS IS SIMPLE BUT IT’S NOT THE GAME I USED TO PLAY .. IF THIS CARRY-ON CONTINUES I PLAN TO TAKE UP FISHING BUT I WON’T WALK AWAY I’ll never walk away... I will stick my ear plugs in or take a paper