GILDING AIMS TO SHOW HIS HEAVY METTLE

ANDREW GILDING will be blaring out heavy metal on the way to Minehead but doesn’t want to be a one-hit wonder. 

‘Goldfinger’ delivered one of the biggest shocks of all-time by beating Michael van Gerwen in the UK Open final last year to win his first major. 

Rock band fan Gilding, 53, returns to the scene of his biggest glory tonight hoping to deliver back-to-back wins at Butlin’s to prove his first win wasn’t a fluke. 

He admitted: “I don’t know how many years I’ve got left playing at this level – it’s sometimes pretty painful with all the travel and I’ve put on a bit of weight since last year.

“But I’ve got a 300-mile drive to Minehead and every second will be loud music all the way – my ears will be ringing by the time I get there.

“I’m acutely aware of the noise I’m making and I try not to look at the drivers next to me if I’m sat at traffic lights, but I don’t have the volume turned up in residential areas!”

Gilding also joked that he was the first person to get a selfie with Luke Littler before the superstars like Declan Rice, KSI and Sir Alex Ferguson. 

He lost out to the teen sensation in the second round of the Worlds. 

He added: “I caught his first round match (against Christian Kist), when he averaged 106, and I thought ‘Oh, here we go’ and I was a little bit nervous because I wasn’t sure what to expect.

“When I got up on the stage, there were people booing me and I wondered what was going on. I was hoping to draw some youngster who had never been there before, and that’s what I got, but he’s something special, that’s for sure.

“I don’t think I disgraced myself – there’s quite a storm around him now and he’s a great player. People talk about how it’s all going to affect him, but the only worry for me would be him missing out on the teenage years.

“I wished him good luck for the rest of the tournament in the players’ lounge. Before the game we shared a lift down to the hotel lobby together and he asked for a photo with me afterwards, which was nice.

“I didn’t really know much about him until then, I hadn’t been following him. But when I was in Blackpool at the World Matchplay, when I went for a kebab after playing one night a couple of people in there were saying, ‘Watch out for Luke Littler’ and I was saying, ‘Who’s that?’

“Everyone knows who he is now. At the World Championship, he was having selfies with famous footballers – I got in there early.”

Images by Taylor Lanning.