"I sh*t myself! I was more nervous doing that than throwing a matchdart" - Nathan Aspinall opens up on viral TikTok stunt

Nathan Aspinall continues to show some strong form in 2025. On Friday night, 'The Asp' confidently dispatched Radek Szaganski 6-4, to reach the quarter-finals of the Poland Darts Masters on the World Series of Darts.

When asked to sum up his performance however, Aspinall was a little self critical. "Not very good. I started off quite well — I think I had a 5–1 lead — and I always do it: I think I’ve won the match in my head before I’ve actually won it. And yeah, he came back at me very strong," reflected the Englishman in his post-match press conference afterwards.

"The crowd started getting involved, as they should. You know, they want him to win. But credit to him — he stuck with me and battled to the end," Aspinall continues. "I put in a great last leg, even though I missed some doubles. It was a comfortable last leg. So, not a great performance, but I’m happy to get off the mark, and I’ll be ready for tomorrow."

Szaganski is currently is a battle to save his Tour Card. As Aspinall says though, if he played like this every week, the Pole would be comfortably inside the top 64. "If he qualifies for the World Championship, then he’s got a chance. At the end of the day, if you qualify for the Worlds, you’ve got the same opportunity as 128 other people — and you’re already on £15,000 starting money," Aspinall says of Szaganski's chances. "So it’s up to him to put in some big performances and results. If he gets into the second or third round, he’ll keep his card."

"He’s a good player — I’ve known him for many years. He’s a fantastic stage player. But you have to do it when it matters. That’s the difference between the top boys and the lower-ranked players like we’re talking about here. When the pressure’s on, sometimes they can’t perform," Aspinall adds. "He’s got the ability, it’s just about doing it when he needs to. I hope he does — he’s a nice guy. But first, qualify for the Worlds. Then have a good couple of weeks and everything’s OK."

Whilst Aspinall's Tour Card is in no danger, The Asp might find his place among the darting elite at risk sooner rather than later. After all, at the upcoming World Matchplay, Aspinall is defending his winner's prize money from two years ago. "Yeah — but I’ll win it, so it doesn’t matter, does it?" Aspinall laughs.

"Honestly, there’s a lot of pressure. I’ve had a good year, and that’s important. I’ve won a decent amount of ranking money before the Matchplay, so I’ve basically halved what I need to defend," he continues. "If I make the semi-final, I’ll stay in the top 16. If I have a bad tournament, I’ll probably drop out. But for every other tournament the rest of the year, I went out in the first round last year — so everything else is a bonus. I’m not worried about it. Rankings are rankings. I know I’m more than capable of winning that tournament. I’ve done it before — one of eight or nine people who’ve won it. I know how to win it, and I feel confident I can do it again this year."

Recently, Aspinall made headlines for slightly different reasons as a video of his throwing a dart into an apple in the mouth of a TikTok star went viral. "I sh*t myself! I was very worried," Aspinall laughs when asked about the incident. "My sponsor also sponsors him. We did a collaboration. He’s doing these crazy challenges and asked, 'Would you throw a dart at an apple in my mouth?' I was like, 'Really?' But honestly, I was more nervous doing that than throwing a match dart — because if I miss, I’m going to hurt him."

"But it was a bit of fun," Aspinall concludes. "Obviously, not everyone likes it because it’s not very PC in England, shall we say. But yeah, it was fun — and I hit the apple!"

In the quarter-finals of the Poland Darts Masters this Saturday evening in Gliwice, Aspinall is up against the world champion Luke Littler.