Stephen Bunting lifts lid on how HYPNOTIST has helped turn around darts fortunes
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Stephen Bunting says hypnotism saved his career - and now Michael Smith could be heading for the last trance saloon. The ‘Bullet’ was Lakeside world champion in 2014 but struggled to make an impact on the Professional Darts Corporation circuit until hypnotherapist Chris O’Connor rekindled Bunting’s mojo with his eyes wide shut. Now the world No.8 is enjoying a new lease of life on the oche while ‘Bully Boy’ Smith needs to find the handbrake to arrest an alarming slide down the rankings.
Both players are from St Helens, both are former world champions and both have experienced the rollercoaster’s peaks and troughs - but only one of them is now heading up the charts. Bunting, who faces Madars Razma in the third round of the Paddy Power PDC World Championship after Christmas, says it’s up to Smith whether he seeks outside help.
But he gave the former world No.1 a wide berth after Bully Boy led the bonfire of ex-champions at Alexandra Palace, where Gary Anderson and Raymond van Barneveld have also fallen by the wayside. Following 2023 champion Smith’s shock second-round defeat by Kevin Doets, Bunting said: “I’ll send Michael a message. He knows how good he is.
“When you lose on that stage, it’s the worst place. And it’s so difficult to go home then and have a great Christmas when you work so hard to get into World Championship and then it’s over in a blink of an eye. So I can totally understand his disappointment and, thankfully, it’s not me going home and having a bad Christmas.”.
