Soutar admitted he wanted to cry after Rydz runs riot

By Phil Lanning

ALAN SOUTAR admitted he wanted to cry because he couldn’t take the World Championship trophy back to Arbroath.

The red-hot Fireman’s fairytale run at the Ally Pally was finally extinguished by Callan Rydz in a 4-1 defeat yesterday afternoon.

Soutar, 43, was the opening set but was then engulfed in a blaze of sensational arrows by the Geordie who reeled off nine legs in a row to seal his quarter-final place. 

Before the match Soots had received a good luck video message from Arbroath boss Dick Campbell. After the defeat, he revealed: “I’m an ambassador for the club so the first home game that I’m not working or at darts I’ll be at Gayfield to speak to Dick and get a wee dram off him like he said.

“I’m gutted I can’t bring the trophy back to Gayfield, it’s OK because Peter Wright or Gary Anderson will bring it back up the road with them, so it’s cool.

“I just want to cry, I’m absolutely gutted. I didn’t turn up today at all. I’m pretty gutted about that.

“I won the first set, I should have just lost the first set like the rest of the games. But I’m just focusing on going back to work and seeing my family and start next year fresh.

“I got absolutely bossed there by Callan, no qualms about that at all.

“I’ve not played well all tournament and I got found out there. Good luck to him in the quarter-finals, he deserves a good run so fair play to him.

“He was brilliant. I was standing at the back thinking I can compete. I wasn’t good enough. 

“It’s been a great learning experience and now I’ve got shifts payback at work so I’ve got to sort that out!

“I’ll be working on January 1 now. I’ve got Hogmanay off so I’ve got a swap for that, I’ll fly back and then night shift on the 1st and 2nd. Back to reality.

“I won’t be quitting my job. Jonny Clayton also has a full-time job but just sticks plaster on walls, I’ve got a hard job!

“If I can’t get any further than this in this tournament then I need a job to back it up. I can’t quit my job.”

Soutar also revealed that he needs to learn from the likes of boo-boy favourite World Champion Gerwyn Price on how to deal with the hostile crowds. 

He added: “I’ve learnt that I’ve got a little bit of bottle. But I knew that anyway. I’ve got to learn to deal with the stage in there. It’s tough, really tough when they are singing against you. 

“Gezzy knows how to deal with it, he performs at his top level still. But I don’t, I struggle out there.

“I’m soaking with sweat. I can feel it running down my back, down my front, my legs, my socks. I’m soaking. 

“I’m just learning. I’m not really friendly with Gezzy, he doesn’t mix with me. If he’s got any words of advice for me, then I’d love to speak to him.

“When you lose you feel really low and down. I’ve now had both feelings, I just go back and process that and try and come back a little bit stronger.

“Everything that has happened this last two weeks has been amazing for me. My profile on social media, profile worldwide has been tremendous. 

“It’s my first year and now I’m sitting 51st in the world, where will I be next year, let’s see.

“I want to be back here of course but it’s a long year. I’ll go back to the ProTour and see what happens.

“I don’t think about trophies, I just think about retaining my tour card. That doesn’t sound very ambitious. But in the first two years I think you need to consolidate what you’ve done. 

“Then you can set in place plans to maybe do a bit better than what you’ve done. I have no targets at all.”