Stephen Bunting had to face
Peter Wright at a
European Tour tournament for the second tournament in a row last weekend. They met first at the German Darts Championship and then again at the
Flanders Darts Trophy.
At the German Darts Championship, Wright won 6-5 over Bunting in the second round, and later the Scot would also win the tournament. At the Euro Tour tournament in Antwerp, the two darters met in the third round after Bunting's convincing win over Scott Williams in the second round. Bunting will no doubt have had a déjà vu feeling from that, because just like a week earlier, 'The Bullet' managed to come back to 5-5 after falling behind. However, it was Wright again who walked away with the deciding leg.
“You probably couldn’t have gotten odds on a repeat of Hildesheim in the way it happened! Naturally I was delighted with how things began on Saturday. Scott [Williams] is a dangerous opponent and he proved that by reaching the World Championship semi-finals recently,'' Bunting began his retrospective on his participation in the Flanders Darts Trophy. "So I knew I had a tough match on my hands but thrilled with my performance and it always feels great where everything clicks up on that stage."
Against Wright it clicked a lot less. Against Williams, Bunting still recorded an average of 104.24, against Wright only 93.29. "With regards to the game with Peter [Wright], of course there are occasions where you play the same person back to back but for it to go down the exact same way is frustrating," he assesses. "I did in fact play much better against him last week in Germany and felt I deserved that one. Then upon reflection, he had the upper hand in this match. But losing in a last leg decider always hurts, especially when I had dug so deep and get back to 5-5 after a slow start."
However, the reigning Masters champion does not want to dwell too long on his two defeats against Wright. “That’s darts. You could argue that it was unlucky to draw such a big unseeded name but to win these events, you need to beat the best anyway. I won’t over think this too much. Both tie-break matches could have gone either way, I am experienced enough in tight games to know that. Today was his day and credit to him but it will make me mentally stronger for when I am in that situation again with whoever it may be.”
