WADE ADMITS TIME IS RUNNING OUT FOR WORLD TITLE DREAM

JAMES WADE admits retirement is getting closer as he chases the one title that has always escaped from him.

‘The Machine’ has won almost everything in darts, but the World Championship has always slipped through his fingers, and he knows he does not have many chances left.

Aldershot slinger Wade is back up to world No7 this season, but he arrives at Ally Pally after three straight second round exits and a growing fear that time is against him.

Wade says the countdown has already begun on how long he has left at the top.

He said: “I am nervous to be honest, I just want to have a good run and I haven’t had for three years. I am looking forward to it though.

“Not quite [had it click on that stage], but hopefully I will get there to the final eventually. It is 22 years and counting. So surely I’ve got to have a chance sooner or later.

“I have been trying to get the motivation. I’ve been trying to see it to the final, but it hasn’t worked so far.

“I would love to get into the latter stages and hopefully this year will be the year. I’m running out of years left because obviously I’m not going to play forever. Retirement is not too far away.

“I have got probably limited numbers now, limited years to do something and actually win the one that’s eluded me.”

10-time major winner Wade insists quitting will never be about form but about doing right by his young family.

He added: “It is not that I won’t be able to do the darts, but I think it gets to a point where you stop doing the travelling because you’ve got a young family, you know?

“And that’s probably the most, well, that is the most important thing in my life, a young family,” he said.

“So I have still got a good few years left, but I don’t want to just spend their whole childhood or all the years before they’re 16 away. I don’t think that’s fair on them.”

Wade reckons lifting the Sid Waddell Trophy would finally make people appreciate just how much he has achieved.

He continued: “I think it would just be the icing on the cake for me.

“I think quite a few people don’t actually realise how much I have won and the things I have done.

“It would be nice to finish it off for myself and I think if I won the world title people might be more aware of what I have done in the past too.

“It might make me more highlighted. It would be quite sweet for me.

“If I am completely honest, I have stopped worrying so much about pleasing so many people and doing more and more. Now, I am just doing my thing.

“I have stopped caring so much that people don’t know. I have realised it is not that important compared to what I am doing for myself and my family.”

Wade begins his World Championship campaign against Ryusei Azemoto on December 17.

Image by Taylor Lanning.