"I've missed like 17 out of 22 birthdays of my daughter": George Noble confirms reasoning for retirement ahead of last Ally Pally final

While Luke Littler may continue to break records and making new history tonight in the final of the PDC World Darts Championship tonight, it will also be one with finality as George Noble ends his illustrious career at the top level.

This is in addition to John McDonald who will call his final tournament as Master of Ceremonies and both were on hand with Darren Bent and Andy Goldstein for talkSPORT Drive to discuss their illustrious career as well as of course who they thought would win and Luke Littler.

Noble spoke about his final stand and said that he has missed enough of his life and his children growing up to not enjoy his life and other business endeavours which he said are now taking up most of their time. 

“Well, I’m not getting any younger. Thirty-one years doing it, I think it’s probably long enough. I’ve actually got some other business interests outside of what I do now, which is taking up a lot of my time," said Noble on talkSPORT Drive. 

“I’ve missed like 17 out of 22 birthdays of my daughter, being away on the road working on the darts. So now I’m able to mix the other business interests with family time. It’s not possible to do all three in the long run, so one of them had to give.

“You know, professional refereeing has been great. I’ve seen every continent, nearly every country, and I’ve enjoyed my time, but now it’s time to sort of take it easy.”

He also spoke about his involvement with MODUS Super Series which he has helped run for a long time and how he will still be involved in the sport despite his retirement formally from the sport.

“No, I’ll still be involved in darts, just not at the PDC. I’m behind a thing on Pluto, a big streaming channel with the MODUS Super Series, which goes on five days a week, 50 weeks a year.

“I run that alongside doing this as well. It’s basically a stepping stone — you go there, and if you’re any good, you then make it to the PDC. So I’m still involved, just not in the mainstream of PDC darts.”

He spoke about his best final to be involved in and actually went all the way back to the BDO for his perspective on his top moment. “That’s a tough question, really. I started off back before the PDC, in the BDO. In 2004 at the BDO, Andy Fordham won it. He was a big mate of mine at the time. 

“And then I guess being involved with Phil Taylor winning it — the greatest player who’s ever lived — was brilliant. But for me, one of my favourite matches was when Phil Taylor wasn’t at the World Championship; it was actually the Premier League final.

“He won it with two nine-dart finishes in one match, live on TV. It had never been done before, and it’s still never been done since.”