James Wade on illness, his PDC World Championship spot and feeling sorry for Luke Littler
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James Wade has been written off more than a stock car in a demolition derby but, as his new walk-on song goes, he’s still standing. In the Professional Darts Corporation era, only two players - Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen - have won more than the Machine’s 11 TV majors. He is the great survivor of the circuit, rolling with the punches of bipolar illness and slipping down the rankings before hauling himself back into the top 16.
And yet Wade, 41, is a 100-1 long shot to win the Paddy Power PDC World Championship at Alexandra Palace, where he is a four-time semi-finalist, when he faces Jermaine Wattimena or Stefan Bellmont on Monday. Two years ago, he was taken ill at the European Open in Germany with symptoms including a racing heart, dizziness and high blood pressure. No wonder he has adopted Elton John’s anthem for the upright. He’s still standing, yeah, yeah, yeah.
LOVE THE DARTS? Get your ultimate World Darts Championship preview now. “I’m doing all right,” said Wade. “There is only one player who has been to more quarter-finals than me this year (Luke Humphries), my averages have increased and at times I’m probably playing some of the best darts I’ve ever played.
“Written off? I don’t think I have ever been there to be written off. I have never been somebody where they have gone, ‘Ohh, he’s a great player.’ I never really had that backing anyway. I have always been taken a bit differently.”. The health scare in Leverkusen frightened Wade, but it was also a moment of epiphany. He revealed: “I was rushed to hospital. This is not an exaggeration, because I don’t have to do that and I knew I was ill, but I didn’t realise how ill I was. I had to make a phone call to my wife to say in six hours I will know if I am going into intensive care or not.
