New dad Wade aims to be the king for Arthur
JUST the mere mention of his baby son Arthur’s name makes James Wade break into a smile. Pride and joy does not begin to cover it.
Wade did not smile so often when he was battling bipolar and dealing with hostile crowds or social media trolls saying he should kill himself.
But behind the spectacles, beneath the layers of selfdoubt which once consumed him, Wade’s story always seems to come up with happy ever afters.
He fell in love with walk-on girl Sammi Marsh – before runway escorts were abolished by the Professional Darts Corporation – and married her in 2015.
After the heartbreak of a miscarriage and emotional investment of IVF treatment, they welcomed little Arthur to the world two months ago.
The ‘Machine’ christened his little cog in style by winning back-to-back TV titles: the European Championship and World Series finals.
Only the stoniest heart would deny Wade his celebrations, not to mention the £150,000 prize money, after all he has been through. And only the most negligent punter would rule him out of winning the William Hill World Darts Championship which starts tomorrow.
“For a long time I never thought I would have children because it was never the right time, right place or the right person in my life,” said Wade, 35. “In my late 20s I was pretty convinced I wasn’t going to have kids. It wasn’t a done deal but I was halfway resigned to the likelihood.
“That’s cool, I could handle that. You can’t just pick up the phone and order a son like a takeaway. That sounds a bit cynical, but I think a lot more people actually think like that than they are prepared to admit. We went through two years of hell or, more accurately, my wife went through two years of hell.
“We’d gone through IVF, Samantha lost one and then we were lucky enough to have Arthur.
“But that was two years of stress and upset. It hits you more than you think. I would say life’s back to normal again but I know it’s never going to be the same again.”
Wade had been slipping into that bracket of nearly-men – often a contender but never the winner – for major titles until he won those back-toback TV crowns in the space of eight days.
It put Wade, three times a world semi-finalist, in exalted company with Phil Taylor, Michael van Gerwen, Gary Anderson and Raymond van Barneveld among those to have achieved the feat. No9 seed Wade, who will meet either Pole Krzysztof Ratajski or Japan’s Seigo Asada in his opening world match, said of recent glory: “It’s a start – that’s all it is. I want more of that and Arthur needs more of that to have the kind of life I want him to have. “I don’t want to bring up a spoilt brat but if he wants a new pair of trainers, as long as he’s not asking for a new pair every fortnight, I don’t expect him to go round with shoes that are falling apart.
“When your private life’s in turmoil it does have a knockon effect on your darts.
“I had my own problems, then we had a tough time trying for a baby and it all stacks up.
“For four or five years I had nothing but **** , but now it’s
all sunshine.”