James Wade begins PDC Home Tour in his man cave with air conditioning, TV and beer tap as he looks to beat boredom
JAMES WADE will try to escape boredom in his man cave tonight and kick-start his career.
The Machine reached just one major TV final last year and was dumped out of the PDC World Darts Championships in the third round.
The 37-year-old will try to make amends in the PDC Home Tour against Adrian Gray, Ryan Searle and Andy Boulton.
World No 8 Wade said: “I wouldn’t normally play darts at the bottom of my garden on a Wednesday night by myself. But I’ve got nothing better to do because I’m bored stiff.
“In five weeks, since the last Players Championship in Barnsley, I had only practised for about two hours in total until the PDC came up with this Home Tour.
“So I’ve been spending a bit more time in the man cave. The devil finds mischief for idle hands. As I found out before the world championship, playing no darts for a month does me no favours whatsoever.
“This gives me the perfect opportunity to get back in the swing of it and reacquaint myself with the practice room which ought to be my second home.
PDC HOME TOUR GROUP SIX FIXTURES — TODAY
- James Wade v Adrian Gray
- Ryan Searle v Andy Boulton
- Adrian Gray v Andy Boulton
- James Wade v Ryan Searle
- Ryan Searle v Adrian Gray
- Andy Boulton v James Wade
“It’s got air conditioning, power, a TV, a beer tap and you could probably live in it. Put it this way — it’s more than a shed.”
Wade, who has bipolar, appreciates how lucky he is to have earned a decent fortune playing darts.
The Aldershot Ace has an 18-month-old son Arthur with wife Sammi, a model and former darts walk-on girl.
Asked how he was finding lockdown, he joked: “To be honest, it’s been really hard.
“It hasn’t driven me crazy — it’s driven me even crazier. When you have a lot of time to think, you don’t always use that thinking time to generate positive thoughts.
“Sometimes you find yourself stressing about things that wouldn’t normally affect you so much.
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“But I try to look on the bright side. I have a gorgeous wife, a son who is now walking and running me ragged, I have a house and a garden and I should count my blessings.
“As patron of a mental health charity, I realise it must be really hard for people who are stuck in cramped flats, with no garden.
“And this crisis will be hard for them to get through day by day, so I don’t feel sorry for myself.”