"I never thought I'd win one of these again": Emotional Cameron Menzies seals redemption after World Championship incident with Players Championship glory

Sometimes, the emotion shown afterwards speaks louder than any statistic. Cameron Menzies could barely find the words when he appeared in front of the camera after his victory at the Players Championship 23 in Leicester.

The Scot was visibly fighting back tears as he tried to explain what this title meant to him. Not only because it is his third Pro Tour victory, but above all because he himself no longer believed he would ever win another Players Championship.

"I thought these days were by me. It's been a tough year. I was lucky. I'm not going to beat about the bush and say I deserved the win. I think Chisnall was lucky, Josh Rock was lucky, Krzysztof was lucky. I've cared about it a lot today and, I'll be honest with you, I think I kind of needed that at the moment because I have struggled this year.

"I never thought I'd win one of these again. I'm not going to try and swear, but I never thought I'd do this ever again after what happened at the World's, mate. Wow.

"I've never won a board final all year and then I thought... yeah, I'm sorry, but I never thought I'd win one of these again. So that's three for a big numpty like me.

A theme all interview with Menzies was disbelief who kept admitting that he couldn't believe what he'd done and that he never thought he'd be in this position again.

"I never thought I'd be in this situation again, especially at the start of the year. I've not done great at all this year. If you'd told me two days ago I'd win my third ProTour, I'd have called you an idiot because I've been struggling. I like Leicester. I hate Leicester. But I love Leicester."

Recently, he spoke about even putting his CV back out to get another job as the darts weren't working, and he said it was true and that he tried to do so due to that World Championship incident.

"I made a mistake and it's a moment. It's not just me who made a mistake. I let my family down and my friends down, and it's a moment where I have to accept everything for what I've done. Obviously, it was stupid what I've done, and it is heartbreaking, but it's my own fault, and I have to accept it.

"Two or three months ago, I thought I was putting my CV back out. It's legit true. I put my CV out. I get phone calls and stuff from agencies. I genuinely thought my darts were spiralling because I was struggling.

"I never thought I'd win one of these again, and I don't know how to explain this because it hasn't been my best performance, but to even get to the quarter-finals, I was buzzing because I think I'd won one board final all year.

"I've been struggling. I never thought I'd win one of these again, and, how much I hate travelling to Leicester, it's been a very good place to me. I'm ecstatic.

But also it has helped Menzies in his own words that he has a good home life and that he is happy off the oche through life coaching and a good relationship. "So I'll be dealing with the whole thing, not just the darts side. Life coaching and stuff. I've got bad anxiety, so I was covered in psoriasis and stuff. Now I've got creams that's helping that. Life coaches is helping with life, not just darts, just life in general.

"I never thought I'd need it, but these things help. I'm in a good place in life at the moment and obviously I've got a girlfriend back home who is massively a darts fan. I don't want to tell her this too much, but she would drive to the end of the road for me to play darts. So when your home life's good, darts is good. The darts has been poor this year, but my home life's getting better. So the home life's getting better, which makes darts easier. Does that make sense?"

As an aside, he said that having a break helped as he switched off from the sport and was able to just come back stronger. "Don't get me wrong, I've not replied to anyone on my phone today. I was proper focused today. The break's been great. I went to Greece. The European Tours were busy, so it was great to have two weeks off and, I tell you what, I needed that. Big time. I never thought I'd do this, so I've punched above my weight, which is obviously a lot of weight! But I tell you what, I never thought I'd ever win a ProTour again."

He also has hidden motivation to come back and win another on Tuesday being his girlfriend's brothers wedding. Could we get two in a row?

"I need to, because the aim was if I do well this week I might have to miss Hildesheim to go to my girlfriend's brother's wedding, so we'll see what happens tomorrow."