WALKIN HAILS HISTORY-MAKING WIN AS BETTER THAN HIS WEDDING!

JAMES WALKIN reckons Trinidad and Tobago’s historic World Cup of Darts victory was even better than his WEDDING DAY.

Walkin and Joshua Balfour broke new ground by securing their nation’s first-ever win at the tournament with a dramatic 4-3 triumph over Latvia on debut in Frankfurt.

But despite the landmark victory, the pair were cruelly denied a place in the knockout stages after an earlier 4-2 defeat to Italy left them third in Group J on leg difference.

The emotional achievement still left a huge mark on Walkin, who admitted the occasion ranked above every other moment in his life.

He said: “I went on that stage with butterflies in my stomach, and I told the girl yesterday, if you don’t get butterflies in your stomach for any endeavour in life, then it’s not worth doing.

“We have to embrace those nerves and the butterflies. It was the — I’m going to upset my wife now—best experience of my life. I have no children; the best experience of my life.

“Yeah, it was better than my wedding. It was fantastic.

“It is bittersweet to win. I will still cry, but not as much.”

Balfour was equally proud of the achievement but admitted missing out on qualification was tough to take.

He added: “Not being able to get through having won the game is very disappointing.

“But at the end of the day, there are rules and points and other factors that need to be taken into consideration.

“It falls on us to go back to the drawing board and come back to fix it for next time.”

Walkin vowed the pair would return to the major event next year by coming through the regional qualifiers once again.

He continued: “At 3-3, maybe the shackles were released because we had nothing to lose.

“Therefore, we played freely, but it is our first time in this environment and it is addictive.

“We will be back, and I say ‘we’ because he is not playing with anybody else.”