TOMORROW night, Glen Durrant will stride onto the stage at Aberdeen’s Exhibition and Conference Centre to make his Unibet Premier League debut in front of more than 8,000 baying fans. His match against former World finalist Michael Smith will mark the start of a 16-week odyssey that will take him up and down the country, via overseas stops in Dublin, Rotterdam and Berlin, before the top four players compete on finals night at London’s O2.
Packed-out venues, a primetime slot on Sky Sports and a life-changing fee for appearing as one of the top nine players in the world. All a bit different to this time a decade ago, when Durrant was bolting dartboards onto easels and trailing around the pubs and clubs of his native Teesside, trying to drum up interest in a new local league.
“There’s a guy called Colin Foxton, and he knocked on my door one day because he’d built a dartboard on an easel,” said Durrant, now better known in darting circles as ‘Duzza’. “I said, ‘Get six more, and we’ll get a tournament going?’ I knocked on every door I could, and we created the Teesside ranking events. The website’s still there!
“That was back in 2010, and the first time we did it there were 60 entries. One month we’d go to North Ormesby Club, the next month it would be Grangetown, and by its peak in about 2012, we had nearly 400 entries for the Teesside Open.
“I created that because I just loved playing darts. You’d get the best of Teesside, the best of North Yorkshire, the best of Tyne and Wear – the Geordies and the Mackems all came – and I was beating them. I loved it. That’s when someone said, ‘You should try to make a go of this’.”
He has certainly done that. Durrant joined the BDO and wrote his name into the darting record books when he emulated the late Eric Bristow by winning three successive World titles at Lakeside.
His hat-trick of triumphs represented success on a scale he could never have imagined when he was competing in the Cleveland leagues, but another challenge awaited. The bright lights of the PDC had been calling for quite a while, and having previously shied away from switching codes, Durrant entered the PDC’s qualifying school last January. It was to be the best decision he ever made, but also one of the most fraught.
“The whole story started at Q School really,” he said. “Okay, I got my third Lakeside title, and you think that was the biggest moment, but having made the decision go to Q School, I was standing there and I was out.
“There was a guy who had three match darts against me. He was comfortably beating me, and I was thinking, ‘God, that’s it, I’m off to the Scottish Open again’. I’ve been doing a fair bit of thinking over the winter, because it’s the first time I’ve had a bit of time to myself, and I keep coming back to that moment.”
The match darts were missed, Durrant secured his PDC tour card, and the last 12 months have been a whirlwind of tungsten triumphs. There was a first Players Championship victory, followed by semi-final appearances at the World Matchplay, World Grand Prix and Grand Slam. In December, the 49-year-old made the quarter-finals of the World Championships at Alexandra Palace, seeing off Daryl Gurney and Chris Dobey before losing to Gerwyn Price.
His run to the last eight at the Worlds led to speculation about a place in the Premier League, but with only nine permanent positions on offer, plus some ‘contender’ spots that Durrant helped fill last year, it was always going to be touch and go. By New Year’s Day, when the announcement was due, it had come down to a choice between Durrant and Dave Chisnall.
“I couldn’t handle the waiting,” he said. “So, I went to the races at Catterick. I went last minute because I was just pacing the house. I told my manager I didn’t want to know. I knew it was probably between me and Chizzy, and when they dropped it down to nine, I thought my chance had gone. My manager found out, and then he couldn’t hold it in any longer and I found out about five past seven on the Sunday night. It’s incredible.”
Durrant starts his Premier League campaign against Smith, but it is next week’s match in Nottingham that has had the darts world talking ever since it was announced last month. Durrant has been drawn against Fallon Sherrock, fresh from her history-making heroics at the World Championships when she beat Ted Evett and Mensur Suljovic as she became the first female player to win a game at the Worlds. All things being equal, Durrant should win. With 10,000 supporters jeering his every move, however, it will not be a level playing field.
“I keep saying I’ve got the worst player, but the toughest game,” he said. “That’s how I’m seeing it. I’m in a no-win situation with Fallon really, but it’s another challenge. I’m not losing any sleep over it.
“If I played her on a Pro Tour, I’d expect to beat her. But with 10,000 people booing and screaming at me, it’s going to be different. But it’s just part of it all. What’s the other option? Going to North Ormesby Workingmen’s Club on a Thursday night and watching it from there?
“I’ve watched the Premier League from the Teesside Friendly League, with the only two guys in the rest of the pub sat behind me. I’ve been sat in the Club playing dominoes, snooker and darts, and watching the Premier League on the telly. Now, I’m going to be up there. I’m not going to be losing any sleep over it, it’s just another challenge.”
And speaking of challenges, Durrant is determined to tackle a few things head on in 2020. Having given up his previous job as an estate manager with Coast and Country Housing, the successor to Redcar & Cleveland Council’s housing department, in early 2019, he wants to change his daily routine. He also wants to shed a few pounds.
“I got a bit lazy last year,” he admitted. “All of a sudden, I wasn’t working at my old job anymore, so I could have a lie in and get up at nine in the morning if I wanted to. But then what do you do, watch Homes Under The Hammer?
“I think I watched every Auf Wiedersehen Pet and every Porridge in the space of about a month, but that’s not really doing you any good in the long run. The biggest thing for this year is to structure my day so much better.
“I also want to get my weight sorted. I’ve been going to Slimming World at Nunthorpe School, getting weighed and trying to get that sorted. I’m hoping a bit of eating better, doing more exercise and drinking lots of water will help.
“I could do with losing a couple of stone because what I didn’t realise about the PDC is that it’s boiling on that stage. Boiling. And the fatter I’ve got, the harder it’s become because I’m dripping sweat and all sorts. You look at someone like Gerwyn Price, and he hasn’t got a bead of sweat on him. How do you find that one per cent here or there? Hopefully that will help.”
* Night seven of this season’s Unibet Premier League is staged at Newcastle’s Utilita Arena on Thursday, March 19. Ticket details are available from www.pdc.tv
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