JOYCE INSISTS HE WILL NEVER QUIT DARTS VOLUNTARILY
18/05/2026 By Aaron Nijjar
RYAN JOYCE insists he would NEVER voluntarily retire from darts.
The world No.26 has opened up on his worrying slump in form after admitting recent defeats have left him fearing his career could end sooner than expected.
Relentless has endured a difficult start to the season, reaching only one ProTour quarter-final at the Belgian Darts Open while also failing to get beyond the third round in any of the 16 Players Championship events this year.
Joyce believes a lack of stamina and practice could be behind his struggles.
He said: “The only thing I can think of is maybe I’m not practising as hard as I should be, considering all these really good players coming through.
“I watch them practising all the time, and I think I haven’t got the stamina or fitness to practise as long because I get too tired.
“Maybe going forward I need to try and lose some more weight and practise harder. That’s all I can really think of because I haven’t changed anything from previous years.”
Joyce also admitted the pressure of losing regularly has started to impact his mentality.
He added: “I think when you’re losing games and not winning, you feel that pressure. It’s not a nice feeling.
“Sometimes it leads you to think, ‘What am I going to do if I don’t get out of this slump?’ You start thinking about other things.
“I would never retire from darts voluntarily, I’d have to lose my Tour Card first, but when you lose a lot of games in a row, you think the end might be closer than you expected.
“I’m going to keep trying right until the end, whenever I eventually lose my Tour Card, and hopefully that’s still a long way off.
“Hopefully this is just a little slump. I’ve had slumps in form before and I’ve always come out the other side, so hopefully this will be the same.”
Image by Taylor Lanning.
