MVG v THE MAN ON THE MOAN
Joyce backing for rival who was taunted by crowd GLOVE CONQUERS ALL
JAMES WADE stormed out of Ally Pally after a potentially damaging defeat set against a “deafening” soundtrack of ferocious booing.
Three-times semi-finalist Wade, 35, is often called the best player never to win a world title.
And after blowing five match darts for a 4-2 victory, we must wonder if he will ever be rid of the tag after his shock 4-3 defeat by 500-1 rank outsider Ryan Joyce (right).
Wade admitted he nearly walked off stage during his narrow third-round win over Keegan Brown because of hostility from the fancydress corps.
But this time, the venom was too much for him. MICHAEL VAN GERWEN cranked up the mind games with Gary Anderson by scoffing: “He’s always moaning about something.”
The Flying Scotsman survived another close call against Chris Dobey, complaining of a chronic bad back and chuntering: “My body’s in bits.”
But world No.1 Van Gerwen is not buying that chorus of Karma, after his excessive aggression against Japanese ninja Seigo Asada before Christmas?
Not really – he apologised for that episode hours later, and he did not deserve such a rough ride from the crowd.
But after missing those five match darts, he has only himself to blame.
As Joyce held his nerve to book a quarterfinal against No.1 seed Michael van Gerwen at the William Hill PDC world championship, Wade – whose mental health issues deserved a more sympathetic audience Fly Me To The Moan. The pair are on course to meet in the semi-finals, and MVG said: “Gary says he’s struggling, but he didn’t struggle when he needed to hit that double six to stay in the game against Chris Dobey.
“Don’t always believe what he says. Gary always complains about something.” – cut a despair. Gesticulating to his entourage that the bawdy atmosphere was beyond his powers of recovery, he gave genial Geordie Joyce a perfunctory handshake before he disappeared into the night and vacated the premises without commenting. The minimum £50,000 for reaching the quarter-finals is by far the biggest payday of Joyce’s career, and he could hardly believe his luck afterwards. He said: “This is the best result of my career by a long way. All my best figure of abject moments at this championship have come under pressure, and maybe I need that pressure to play well.
“I did notice the booing at the start of the first set and again in the seventh, when it was deafening. It really was that loud.
“As it happens I won both those sets, so depending on the way you look at it or your interpretation, you’ll have to decide whether it helped me.
“James was struggling, but I’ve always got on with him, I haven’t got a negative word to say about him.
“If it was the other way round, and it was me being booed like that, I would be very disappointed as well – but it wasn’t my fault the crowd turned on him.
“I’ve got to be happy I’ve got through.” NATHAN ASPINALL suffered heartbreak when his dream of keeping goal for Manchester United turned sour – but his glove story is heading for a happy ending.
The Asp (left), who reached the PDC World Championship quarter-finals with a 4-3 win over Devon Petersen, used to train every week at an academy run by United.
The 27-year-old, who today faces Brendan Dolan in the last eight, said: “I played semi-pro with Cheadle Town and in the final qualifying round of the FA Cup I gave a penalty away in the last minute at 3-3 and didn’t save it. All the lads said stuff in the dressing room. I was so upset I never played again.”