"Never say never" - Two time major finalist refuses to rule out PDC return after re-finding his love of darts

Wes Newton was active in the PDC between 2002 and 2018. During that period, he reached the final of a major twice, played in the Premier League Darts and hit a famous nine-darter on the Winter Gardens stage.

'The Warrior' was one of the best players in the world a decade ago, but suffered a severe drop down the rankings due to a shoulder injury. Now he has returned to a 'normal' job as a quality control engineer at an engineering company, although he does still throw darts for fun.

"Halfway through my second year in the Premier League I picked up a shoulder injury,” he recalls in conversation with Mirror Sport. “There was nothing in particular that caused it, I just woke up one morning and it was there. I struggled with it for about two years and when it finally settled down and the pain went my throw had changed. I developed a weaker throw, my form and rankings both dipped and that was the start of the decline. Then my kids came along and maybe I lost a bit of hunger for the game. It’s hard when you’re struggling so much; at the time it was just one thing after another.”

Understandably, Newton somewhat fell out of love with the game for a while. He has however, since played in the WDF - in which he still competes occasionally - and tried his luck on the Modus Super Series. Whilst not fully ruling out a sensational return to the PDC, for now he is just playing his darts at the local level and finally getting some enjoyment out of the game once more.

"I would still like to play at a higher level but over the last year or so I made the decision to take a step back and only play local stuff. When it became a job, and you go through the struggles and everything, it’s hard to still enjoy it," he says. “Now that’s been and done and I’ve been back working again for four years, it’s starting to come back. I’m playing for the enjoyment again. If my game comes back, I will start trying the higher-level tournaments again and getting back into something. I know it’s going to be difficult with how good some of the players are these days, but you never know. Never say never.”

“I’m proud of what I achieved,” Newton concludes. “But there’s also a bit of feeling that I should have done more. When I had my purple patch, I was really up there. I should have won more than I actually did. There was one spell where I lost three quarter finals in four years at the worlds, and they all went 5-4. They were all really close games, and, in my heart, I think I probably should have won all of them. There’s always a bit of feeling that I should have done more but I’m still so proud of what I achieved.”