I’m not really driven by greatness.. just playing the game well is my motivation
Modest Ando keeps cool as he stands on brink of history
GARY ANDERSON is two steps away from greatness as the Jocky Balboa of darts after a demolition of Dirk van Duijvenbode.
The Flying Scotsman roared into the PDC World Championship semi-finals with his best display since he started wearing glasses on stage four years ago.
Anderson’s 5-1 win oozed specs appeal and brought him to the gates of Scottish sport’s pantheon.
If he goes on to win a third world title, and surpasses Jocky Wilson’s pair of triumphs in 1982 and 1989, Anderson will belong in the same company as Sir Andy Murray, Sir Chris Hoy, Sandy Lyle and Sir Jackie Stewart among Scots idols.
Murray won three Grand Slam titles, Hoy stockpiled six Olympic gold medals made him one in a bullion north of the border, Lyle won a Green Jacket and a Claret Jug on the golf course and Stewart is Formula One royalty.
And when Anderson – who lifted the Sid Waddell Trophy in 2015 and 2016 - is as clinical as he was at deserted Ally Pally he is a titan in tartan.
Dutch aubergine farmer Van Duijvenbode’s journey to the quarter-finals was fun while it lasted, but this time he was left with eggplant on his face.
Ando isn’t driven by the prospect of greatness, and he said: “What motivates me? Playing the game, and playing it well. Simple as that.
“I don’t get out of bed in the morning to be better than other people – although when the alarm clock goes off at 7am on New
YeYear’s Day, something isisn’t right! “A third world title? YeYeah, we’re here to try. I hahad the chance to win thrthree back-to-back, but a certainc Dutchman, MicMichael van Gerwen, stopstopped me. “IIf I retired tomorrow, I wouldw be happy as LarrLarry. I’ve proved myself and done it: the Premier LeaLeague, the World MatcMatchplay the UK Open... I’ve wonw all of them. “I camec here with no confidconfidence and my game was alla over the place, but it’s defdefinitely getting there. When I start knuckling down again, watch out.” WheWhen Anderson’s mince pies began to fail him after his successive world titles, he had to adjust his throw to stop knocking his glasses off.
But where Van Duijvenbode couldn’t hit one of his aubergines from 7ft 9in after pinching the first set, Anderson was suddenly seeing the double beds like vegetable patches on an allotment.
Behind the lenses of his varifocals, his aim was fifty shades of pinpoint accuracy.
Anderson wore goggles when he lost to Van Gerwen in the final four years ago, but his eyes are firmly on the £500,000 prize now.
He said: “It was great without glasses, but it annoys me that you can go through life for 40-odd years without them but and then you have to start wearing them.
“I can take my glasses off and my throw is better than it is now – but I haven’t got a clue what I’m hitting. Not a foggy.
“If anything is close to the wire, I can’t tell which side it has landed. I’ve got to play with glasses, otherwise I cannae see.”
Opticians can sort out whether four eyes may be better than two, but if Anderson wins a third world title, he will be the first player to win the PDC crown wearing glasses.
And if he surveys the London skyline from Ally Pally’s south terrace with the richest prize in darts, he can write his own script for an episode of Specs and the City.