"The weird looks I get in Belgium won't be there now" - 13-year-old top talent Lex Paeshuyse participates in brand new Junior Power League

13-year-old Belgian Lex Paeshuyse is the current world champion at the Junior Darts Corporation (JDC). The JDC has now also created a new concept: the Junior Power League. In it, the ten best players compete against each other every Friday night, somewhat along the lines of the PDC's Premier League of Darts.

"I don't really know what to expect, but I'm looking forward to it," Paeshuyse told Het Nieuwsblad. "It's a very nice extra after getting my Tour Card for the Advanced Tour and also a good training since I'm going to be able to constantly pitch against the better players. I don't necessarily want to win that game. It would be cool, but I know all my opponents can throw great, so I don't rate my chances very high. The main goal is to raise my standard. Throwing against those top players would make me want to get better. But I will be allowed to come out of my pipe, those guys are so good. I have to work hard to get to that level."

Paeshuyse already faces stiff opposition including WDF world champion Archie Self, super-talent Jayden Walker and international star Tergel Khurelkhuu from Mongolia.

"Who throws 100 average while laughing," stated Nick Cambré, president of JDC Belgium. "The competition for Lex is very big. In our country he can beat anyone, but in England there are so twenty talents running around. However, it is a good thing that he is there, just for the experience. Moreover, it was completely his own choice, he has been given all the freedom. It will be hard against hard. Lex has already won from those guys, but also lost. I assume he will come out of this better, because his head is right. He's not going there to win, he's also told that at home. Nothing has to, everything goes."

Paeshuyse, meanwhile, notices that his performance at home is followed with a magnifying glass. "I can handle all the pressure pretty well, but when I lose.... Then I always get those weird looks. During a match I should focus on the match, not on the idea of, 'What are they going to say if I lose?' That's quite irritating. It's different in England than in Belgium or Holland, so being able to 'duck out' can be nice. The weird looks I get in Belgium won't be there now."

Mama Inez recently crept into her pen on Facebook after Paeshuyse lost early in the tournament at the Dutch Open Darts. "My message was mostly: when Lex wins, people think something's wrong," she says. "And then when he loses, they all come up to him to ask what was wrong. Then I think, 'Can he lose, too?' You can't always throw 85-90 average ... Lex can also lose and will lose a lot more in his career. I wanted to point out that he also has to work hard for it, that not everything comes with a snap of his fingers. They sometimes think that and that's not right. Nobody likes to lose, but Lex has to constantly meet expectations. He doesn't set them sky-high himself, but he does feel that pressure on all sides. He always has to answer when he doesn't win."

This new tournament does cause extra stress for the Paeshuyse family. "So that's taking leave again huh," laughs mom Inez (Back Office Consultant at Agilitas). "I'm lucky to have seven weeks. In the summer I don't take leave, I just take darts leave. That's what I have to call it. We also decided not to take a family vacation for the first time... Darts comes first. We will go to Center Parcs once in a while, but we are already abroad on a regular basis, so going again didn't really have any added value. Dad Peter (chief warehouse worker at DCA, ed.) will unfortunately not always be able to be there because he only has five separate days and already does a lot of overtime. That is untenable. But we realize well enough that we're living a dream, so we'll give up everything for that."

To realize that dream, Paeshuyse no longer attends a "regular" school. "Lex switched to homeschooling at the beginning of January. Here we have a wonderful teacher/friend who will guide him in his studies. He will take his exams at the examination board. We are looking for the best possible ways to keep everything combinable but also sustainable for him."