Peter Wright avoided an early elimination at the
European Championship on Thursday night with a superb comeback. The two-time world champion won against
Gabriel Clemens in the first round with much struggle and difficulty.
The Scot trailed 1-4 against 'The German Giant,' but a change of material caused a reversal. With another set of darts, Wright came back to 5-5 and then 'Snakebite' threw an 11-darter to take the win. ''MVG's darts work alright don't they under pressure. He normally wins last legs so I thought, get MVG's darts out. I was just chasing all the way through the game to be honest. I've tried out a setup which I'm going to throw with in the future but I don't know if I was aiming too much, so I just needed to get out MVG's darts."
It was a victory Wright could have put to good use. The world number three has been struggling with his form all season and he has a lot of prize money to defend in the world rankings in the coming months. However, 'Snakebite' is confident he has found the line up again.
''I'm just starting to feel confident in my own abilities. I'm not ready for retirement," he declares. "I can still push these youngsters coming through. I'm going still play the game and I'll do that as long as my life allows it."
Earlier this year, Wright briefly thought about hanging up the arrows. ''Yeah well, you know, I've seen many players in the rankings tumble down so quickly and all of them fantastic dart players and they've not even got a Tour Card and stuff. In the back of your mind, you're thinking am I going to be one of them players?"
On Saturday, Wright will be back in action at the European Darts Championship in Dortmund. In the second round, he faces world champion Michael Smith, who was 6-1 too strong for Raymond van Barneveld.