DOBEY WANTED TO SLAP RIVAL AFTER CHEEKY ALLY PALLY MOMENT

CHRIS DOBEY joked he wanted to “slap” Xiaochen Zong after the Chinese star pulled off a cheeky blind 180 at Ally Pally.

‘Hollywood’ eventually came through a scrappy opener to beat Zong 3-1 in the first round of the World Darts Championship.

Zong was one leg from levelling the match in the second set when he produced a moment of audacious showmanship, turning away from the board as he buried a no-look maximum.

World No8 Dobey admitted the incident wound him up and gave him the spark he needed.

He said: “I could’ve slapped him when going for that 180, though.

“It annoyed us a little bit and I wanted to try that little bit harder.”

Dobey later admitted a sickness bug had hampered his display at Ally Pally.

The Bedlington thrower revealed he’d been ill through the night and into the morning of his match.

He added: “I didn’t want to get out of bed this morning. You have to force yourself here, but I’ve done the best I could.

“I didn’t feel great last night or this morning. I just came up here and tried to do my best and play my game.

“The harder I tried, the worse I got at times. I just didn’t want to be up there for the last two sets.

“It showed in the end, but I got the job done. Now I can go home, recover for a few days and hopefully bring my best.

“If you can’t get yourself up for the biggest tournament, you shouldn’t be in it – you shouldn’t be playing darts.

“It’s what everybody dreams of. You want to be world champion, you want to be here playing.

“My motto, I’ve always said, this is the one and you’ve got to be in it. If you’re not in over Christmas, it ruins Christmas.

“That’s the way I go into this tournament. It’s the biggest one of all and you want to win that big one.”

Dobey now meets Andrew Gilding in round two and knows he’ll need a big step up to progress.

He continued: “He’s different to the rest of them.

“He’s a fantastic player. Another one that people have written off – don’t underestimate how good he is.

“He’s a major winner and I’m going to have to give it my best. Not only has he got his own style, he’s a very good dart player.

“I’ll respect that and hopefully I can bring my best for that one.”

Image by Taylor Lanning.