Martin Adams despite being one of the leading figures in the history of the BDO did not make his Grand Slam of Darts debut until 2015.
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The cross-code tournament which sees both the best of the PDC and BDO compete against each other was rejected multiple times by Adams with the PDC even making him not eligible for invitations in the future.
As part of the Golden Arrows Podcast, 'Wolfie' spoke about the decision to decline these invites and admitted a lot of factors went into it.
"A lot of it was to do with playing for England. If I went over to play in that particular event, there was a possibility I wouldn't be able to play for England. Plus it didn't match up sometimes, the World Masters was one event it didn't match up with. Another year I had exhibitions booked so I couldn't do it," said Adams.
"Barry Hearn accused me of having misplaced loyalties. God bless you Barry I still think you were wrong but there you go. He had an opinion and that's what it was. I'm sure if I meet Barry in the future, we'll have a laugh about it."
On his 2015 debut subsequently, Adams said that it was down to the BDO wanting him to play more than anything. "I actually phoned the BDO and said I have this invitation, do you want me to play. I said and if the BDO doesn't want me to play, I won't and the response I had back was yes we want you to play."
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""I'm sure if I meet Barry in the future, we'll have a laugh about it!"
@wolfiedarts explains his decision to turn down his Grand Slam invitation in 2007 and what changed for him to accept in 2015 in the latest episode of the #GoldenArrows series.
👉: open.spotify.com/episode/5hCP5r…