King on darting future after Rodriguez win: "I'm 55, there's only so long left"

Mervyn King saw off Rusty-Jake Rodriguez 5-4 in order to keep his Grand Slam of Darts hopes alive and he was glad to be in the winners' circle after losing to Bradley Brooks on the opening day.

"To get even close to winning a game was nice today. I just take each game as it comes and I just get up there and let them go. If they're good enough great, if not they're not well it's just the way it goes," said King post match.

"I played a bit better today. Not fantastic but we're getting there. Felt a bit more in control of every dart. Overall the game felt a lot more in control, I was a lot happier with that performance."

Debut at Aldersley

King hasn't played at the Grand Slam for a number of years so hasn't been at Aldersley previously and like many he prefers the Wolves Civic.

"This is the first time I've played it. The Civic Hall always sticks in my mind. I personally prefer the Civic Hall but there you go. A venue's a venue, it's a great venue but when I came over to the PDC, we played in the Civic Hall and that's the only place I've ever played the Grand Slam in so you've got all those memories playing there."

Darting future

He was also asked how long he thinks he can last in the game and believes as long as he can produce the standard, he will still be involved.

"I'm 55, there's only so long left. If I can reach 60 playing to that standard then great but it is what it is and I give my all every time I go up there. As long as I can keep producing the odd game, that's really good."