"I could not reach the bullseye, I went I'm in trouble here": Gary Anderson ditches chainsaw in spare time in bid to avoid shoulder injury hell

Gary Anderson returns to the World Championships this week with one clear understanding with himself: no more chainsawing until after Ally Pally.

The two-time world champion saw his tournament go up in smoke last year due to a shoulder injury he suffered while maintaining his fishing ponds in Somerset. A painful misstep he wants to avoid at all costs this time at the PDC World Darts Championship.

Anderson looks back unflinchingly at the cause of his physical problems. “I was trying to cut through a trunk, but I was on my tiptoes with a chainsaw in one hand, stretching above," he said to Oche.

“When we went to London, my [son] Tai went down to the practice room and I went down to get him. I’m about to throw a dart and I could not reach the bullseye. That’s about as high as I could get the dart to go. I went: ‘I’m in trouble here’.

The Scot immediately felt things were wrong. His shoulder was not moving as it should and a decent throw at level proved impossible. “I usually throw up to my eye when I’m standing up, but I’ve been throwing, I’ve been having to throw on the up because sometimes it just automatically, my shoulder comes down, but hey, it’s part of the past now, I just get on with it. Keep the mouth shut and get on with it."

Although Anderson rarely sits still besides the sport, he has placed a clear restriction on himself. Work on his fishing ponds continues, but the dangerous tools remain untouched for now.  “I’ve got a hell of a lot of work to do at the fishing lakes and this is the time we’ve got to do it.

“Everyone thinks I go fishing all the time, but I don’t. I’ve not got time. It’s every day, seven days a week, cleaning the lakes out and we’re starting to lag behind, so we can’t wait till the Worlds is over so we can get stuck into it.

“My buddy helps me out now and again, he goes: Do not touch a chainsaw until after the Worlds.”

The Scot remains a factor to be reckoned with on the big stage. He still holds the record of 17 consecutive wins in the first round at the World Championship, a run that earned him two titles and a final place between 2014 and 2016. Last year things went wrong, and that very thing gave Michael van Gerwen the chance to take the record away from him.

Anderson can live with it, but wants to get back to the top. “I did until last year, it was an absolute disaster. I’ve been in the final now five times. So, it would be nice to get to a final again and win it, and that’s a 50 per cent record, isn’t it? Played six, won three, I’d be quite happy with that.

“But yeah, it’s the Worlds. All the year, all the tournaments we go on, that just doesn’t matter. It’s that one. That’s what every dart player wants to do. That’s what every dart player dreams, just to get on that stage and play.”

That he trains less than many of his peers is no secret. Anderson previously held that family and work cannot combine the sport forever. But he doesn't want to hear about an expiring career just yet.

“It cheeses me off when somebody says, you can’t do it, you’re finished. Well, what do you know about my life? You know absolutely nothing. I’ll decide when I’m finished, not you.

“So don’t tell me that I’m not going to do that. I’m still trying. Instead of just cowering away and saying, that’s my career done, I’m away now. Get up and try it. Keep going.

Even Van Gerwen once teasingly called him a part-timer. Anderson, meanwhile, can laugh about it. “What was it Van Gerwen said to me? Did he call me a part-timer? He did and I was laughing. I went: He’s not wrong. He’s totally right, so you can’t have a go at someday when he’s just…well Gary, the part-timer. He is.

“I did beat him once and I went: Not bad for a part-timer! But I have a joke and people should realise this, I don’t play a lot of darts now, but I still try my damnedest when I get up there.

Anderson sees how quickly the level is rising and expects dominance like in previous years to be non-existent. “The amount of players that are going to be through in the next five years, you won’t have somebody dominating the sport because there’s going to be so many good darts players.

“We’ve seen [Gian] Van Veen, I really do like that lad. Lovely, lovely, clever kid. He’s done it the right way. Did all his qualifications, what he had to do, his exams and then he took up darts.

Even with that, he gives fatherly advice: “A lot of kids come from school and think: Right, I’ll just play darts. It’d be nice, but it doesn’t always work out that way. So I always try to get a trade.

“I’ve always said, get a trade or something to do. Just in case it doesn’t go right. You’ve always got to have that little thing to fall back on. [Just] not chainsaws!”