STRUMTHING SPECIAL
Guitar hero Gilding joins Luke fan club
GUITAR hero Andrew Gilding defends his UK Open title tonight resolving not to join the oche’s cast of one-hit wonders.
At 52, ‘Goldfinger’ became the oldest first-time winner of a darts major when he shocked Michael van Gerwen in last year’s final.
He used some of his £110,000 prize money to extend his collection of replica rock-star guitars as used by legends Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page.
But he walked into the storm of teenage sensation Luke Littler’s rampage to the PDC World Championship final at Alexandra Palace, losing 3-1 to the 16-year-old in the second round.
And Gilding still laughs at the memory of Luke the Nuke asking him for a selfie when millionaire footballers, including England star Declan Rice, would soon be queueing up to have their picture taken with Littler
(inset), joking: “I got in there early.”
He said: “I caught Luke’s first-round match (against Christian Kist), when he averaged 106, and I thought, ‘Oh, here we go’ and I was a little bit nervous because I wasn’t sure what to expect.
“When I got up on the stage, there were people booing me and I wondered what was going on. I was hoping to draw some youngster who had never been there before, and that’s what I got, but he’s something special, that’s for sure.
“I don’t think I disgraced myself – there’s quite a storm around him now and he’s a great player. “People talk about how it’s all going to affect him, but the only worry for me would be him missing out on the teenage years.
“I wished him good luck for the rest of the tournament in the players’ lounge. Before the game we shared a lift down to the lobby together and he asked for a photo with me afterwards, which was nice. “Everyone knows who he is now. At the World Championship, he was having selfies with famous footballers – I got in there early.”