PDC WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS SKIP TO THE LEW

Squeaky bum time but Ade still on the pot Wade: family comes first

ADRIAN LEWIS dodged the bonfire of world champions with a nerve-shredding comeback and said: “I wasn’t prepared to go out with a whimper.”

The days when Lewis won backto-back titles in 2011-12 at Alexandra Palace were a distant memory, if not mirages in the desert, when he trailed Spain’s Cristo Reyes by two sets.

And the smart money was on Lewis to join Raymond van Barneveld and Rob Cross among the big guns turfed out at the first hurdle in the William Hill PDC world championship when Reyes missed a dart to win it.

But this was the day when ‘Jackpot’, whose record at Ally Pally has been a feast of achievement, refused to turn to snackpot.

For the best part of three sets, Lewis scattered his arrows across the board like a cowboy handyman spilling a bag of nails.

But he dug deep and revealed: “I’m a proud man, this is my world championship and I wasn’t going to let him walk all over me 3-0.

Horrible

“How did I do it? I’ve got some nuts – it had to be that way.

“But I can’t leave my wife, stay up until two or three in the morning on the practice board for this tournament and go out with a whimper.

“The first round is a horrible format – to be two sets down is a horrible situation – but I lived to fight another day and have another trot.

“I’ve been playing darts half of my life but I’m not finished. I haven’t shown what I’m capable of doing – I’m only at 70 per cent at the moment.

“It’s mentally draining watching seeds fall left, right and centre. It felt like a lifetime waiting to play my first game.

“But this is the tournament that really matters, the world championship is the one everyone wants to win – that’s why all those seeds fall, because of the pressure.”

Head in hands after missing double 12 by a whisker for a perfect nine-dart leg in the final set, Lewis went through every conceivable emotion in a 62-minute white knuckle ride.

But at least he enjoyed the fancy dress hordes swinging behind him as his fightback gathered an irresistible momentum.

JAMES WADE claims it would be a blessing in disguise if he missed the cut for the Premier League in 2020.

The ‘Machine’ would be a reluctant tourist when the 17-week circus pitches its big top as far afield as Berlin, Rotterdam, Aberdeen and Exeter – because he would miss his wife Sammi and toddler son Arthur too much.

Wade (left), who faces former Lakeside world champion Steve Beaton in the William Hill PDC world championship third round tonight, won the Premier League 10 years ago. But he admitted: “It would be a godsend if I wasn’t in it this year.

“I have a beautiful wife, an amazing son, one of my least worries would be to get into the Premier League.

“The best players for the PDC will be there – my time is better off spent with my family. I wouldn’t be disappointed if I miss out.

“I don’t think I will be in it unless I win the world championship. I don’t hold out much hope.”