Hamilton proved himself wrong on BDO circuit: 'I surprised myself'

Andy Hamilton is making his BDO England Open debut on Saturday. The former PDC World Championship finalist revealed at the end of 2017 that he was switching to the BDO after losing his Tour Card.

Hamilton will face Freddie Box in the first round of the BDO England Open. If 'The Hammer' wins his first game, then BDO number one Mark McGeeney awaits in the second round. The 51-year-old speaks about his expectations for this event in an interview with . ''I'm just going to enjoy my darts and play as well as I know I can, keep the momentum and confidence going. I have taken to the BDO really well, and I have met some great people whilst being here It's amazing what winning can do for your game.'' ''I was worried about fitting in at first because of my PDC roots, but the players and fans have been so welcoming with a special mention to Scott Mitchell, Tony O'Shea, Gary Robson and Mark McGeeney. These events are all learning curves for me, but I'll enjoy it and if I do that I'll play well.''

Playing on the BDO circuit

'The Hammer' decided to play on the BDO circuit for the first time in his career, as he opted to skip the PDC Q-School. Hamilton says he has done himself proud in the first six months of the season.
''I think I have done myself proud after the disappointing two years prior on the PDC, I've stripped darts right back to where I started in the sense of having fun and enjoying the game. Before, I have never played BDO so all of the events are completely new to me. I have been used to tournaments starting at 12 o'clock in the afternoon and I thought I'd struggle with the longer days some of the BDO events have.''
''However, I proved myself wrong with the Welsh Open. I was at the venue at 8:15am practising and I played in the final at around 10:30pm that evening. So I can say I don't think I have ever played darts for 14 hours in a day on the PDC so I surprised myself there. But it's going well I'm climbing up the rankings and my confidence is high again.''

Lakeside

The Stoke-on-Trent Ace booked some good results in the first few months of this season. He firstly reached the quarter-finals of the Denmark Masters and two weeks later Hamilton managed to qualify for the final at the . There is still a long way to go to force a spot at Lakeside, but he is not ruling out the possibility to qualify for Lakeside through the rankings. ''I do love to qualify for Lakeside and with my confidence at the moment there is no reason why I can't qualify. I missed the first 4-5 months of the BDO season so it will be hard to qualify outright but there's a qualifier at Bridlington I believe so there is every chance yet.'' ''After this weekend I got a double header in Llanelli and then in Wolverhampton in July along with Luxembourg at the end of that month so there's some good points to be picked up in the next six weeks. I'm up to the top 75 in the seasonal (one year) rankings and top 120 in the two year ranking, so I've come a long way in a short space of time. I won't rule Lakeside out yet.''

Photo: PDC Europe

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