It’s a dram shame that I won’t be toasting the title with Dick
Al to drown his sorrows with Arbroath gaffer
ALAN SOUTAR is heading home for a dram with Arbroath boss Dick Campbell.
But the Red Lichties ambassador is just gutted he won’t be taking the Sid Waddell Trophy with him to Gayfield.
Soutar’s fairytale run at the William Hill World Championship came to an end when sank by classy Callan Rydz.
The Scot had beaten Diogo Portela before taking the scalps of big guns Mensur Suljovic and Jose De Sousa in a magical Ally Pally debut to set up the crunch with the Geordie.
But rapid Rydz was just too hot for the fireman to handle and Soutar is now heading back up the road to go back to work and also take up Campbell on his offer of a nip.
He said: “I’m an ambassador for the club, so the first home game that I’m not working or at darts, I’ll be at Gayfield to speak to Dick and get a wee dram off him like he said.
“I’m gutted I can’t bring the trophy back to Gayfield, I just want to cry, I didn’t turn up at all. I’m pretty gutted about that.
“I got bossed by Callan, no qualms about that at all.
“It’s been a great learning experience and now I’ve got shifts payback at work, so I’ve got to sort that out!”
Rydz dropped his very first set of the entire tournament when Soutar grabbed the opener.
However, from that point, it was one-way traffic with relentless Rydz rattling off four straight sets, dropping just one solitary leg.
Soutar’s quarter-final hopes were wrecked but he is able to take stock of a terrific two weeks which has rocketed him up the PDC rankings.
He said: “Everything that has happened has been amazing for me. My profile on social media and profile worldwide has been tremendous.
“It’s my first year and now I’m sitting 51st in the world. Where will I be next year? Let’s see.”
Soutar will be back working at the Fire Station tomorrow and said: “I won’t be quitting my job. Jonny Clayton just sticks plaster on walls, I’ve got a hard job!
“If I can’t get any further than this in this tournament, then I need a job to back it up. I can’t quit my job.
“I’ve got Hogmanay off. I’ve got a swap for that, I’ll fly back and then night shift on the first and second. Back to reality.
“I’m just focusing on going back to work, seeing my family and starting next year fresh.
“I don’t think about trophies, I just think about retaining my Tour card.
“That doesn’t sound very ambitious but in the first two years, I think you need to consolidate what you’ve done.
“Then you can set in place plans to do a bit better than what you’ve done. I have no targets.
“I’ve learned that I’ve got a little bit of bottle.
“I’ve got to learn to deal with the stage. It’s really tough when they are singing against you. “Gezzy [Price] knows how to deal with it, he still performs at his top level still. But I don’t. “I’m not really friendly with Gezzy. If he’s got any words of advice for me then I’d love to speak to him. When you lose you feel low and down. I’ll just go back and process that.”