ANDERSON TITLE DRIVE BY HORSEPOWER

GARY ANDERSON says that HORSEPOWER could drive him to becoming the greatest Scottish player of all-time. 

The Musselburgh-born marksman is just three wins away from a historic third World Championship title at the Ally Pally. 

Ando, 55, faces Justin Hood today (New Year’s Day) as he chases down the first-ever £1million jackpot for the winner.

He admits his kids Tai and Cheylea are his inspiration and he reckons he needs the dosh to pay for his daughter’s Christmas present!

He revealed: “She’s just had a horse for Christmas, so I’m going to have to keep going.

“And they don’t stop eating. They eat and eat and eat.”

Will winning a million help? He added: “That might feed it for a couple of weeks!”  

Anderson can overtake Jocky Wilson and Peter Wright’s two world title wins and officially become the most decorated Scot with another victory at the Ally Pally on January 3. 

But he insists he’s not interested in such statistics. He added: “I don’t care  what happens in tournaments and that, but I enjoy playing. I can still, when it happens and comes right, play just as good as the rest of them, so we’re still kicking.

“Listen, I play darts. I don’t care who’s the greatest. Whether it’s Peter, Jocky or Timbuktu. It doesn’t bother me. I’ve played darts for a long time. I’ve enjoyed playing for my country. I still try to fly the flag for Scotland.”

But Anderson does believe that it would be his greatest achievement to land a title hat-trick. 

He said: “I would say the amount of youngsters that are on the go now that are coming through and, if I’m still going, yeah. 

“I like a wind-up. Everyone says I moan, I don’t. I like a good wind-up. It’s all kind of tongue in cheek time. But I can still play. Peter’s (Wright) got a hard time now. Peter will come back. It’s in your blood. You can have off minutes, and I say we ain’t robots. You can have a hard time, you don’t know what’s going on. Cammy (Menzies) will bounce back, bigger and better. That’s the way life is.”

Anderson breezed past a below par Michael van Gerwen to reach the last eight. On every occasion the pair have met in the Worlds, the winner has gone on to take the title. 

He said: “You’ve just really done it for me. Yeah, that’s it. I’ll be going home now on New Year’s Day! 

“Before, they say Anderson, Van Gerwen, it’s going to be a classic. It doesn’t work like that. Every time somebody says that, it doesn’t work like that. 

“If they say we don’t know how this is going to go, it’s a classic, So I’m over the moon that I’m still there.”

Luke Humphries and Luke Littler have both picked up MBE gongs after one world title. But Ando has won two without an award from the king. 

He’s clearly not fussed on such accolades, adding: “You know what I’m like, I speak my mind. I don’t think that gets you any feelers in the world. 

“But they’ve done great, they’ve done a lot of things, all the best to them, hope they have a great career, but to me, I’m not involved with it, so I don’t really care.”

Ando, based in Somerset, now has local rivals still in the tournament Hood and practice partner Ryan Searle. 

He added: “I know Justin, how good he is. Ryan has always been to me a cracking player. I’ve got a lot of time for Ryan. “He’s got a kind of sense of humour like me. We can be very dry and off-putting at times, but he’s got a lovely family, the kids are great. It’s great. You’ve got myself and Justin. Not bad. We’re a wee part of the world.”

Hood has been talking up buying a Chinese after the tournament. 

Ando added: “I’ve just heard that. I said, is he paying? He says he’s buying it. Well, I’ll be going there as a wee freebie. He’s just a funny, funny lad. It was like the first match he won, he lifted his jumper up. It was just that cheeky little grin on his face. You can’t say nothing about that, can you. He’s just absolutely brilliant.

“No, I’m going to give him a right kick in the kneecap before we go on stage! No, the way he’s playing now, I came up against some cracking players and I’ve got my hands full again. If he goes on to beat me, I’ll wish him all the best in the semis and the final.”

Image by TAYLOR LANNING.