Nicholson on Adams never moving over to the PDC from BDO: “Everyone in darts agrees that Wolfie would have succeeded”

Martin Adams is one of the main darting legends to never make the full switch over from the BDO to the PDC.

As part of a new series with Sporting Life, Paul Nicholson discusses these players and starts with the three-time Lakeside World Champion.

“Of all the players who didn’t make the switch he is the greatest champion and most loyal flagbearer for the BDO over the last 20 years,” said Nicholson to Sporting Life.

“Everyone in darts agrees that Wolfie would have succeeded if he’d played in the PDC on a full-time basis – even if that had been several years before he won his three Lakeside titles and three World Masters crowns between 2007 and 2011.”

“Around the turn of the century there used to be competitions which players from any organisation could enter to qualify for PDC majors such as the World Matchplay and World Grand Prix and Martin took advantage of that loophole back in 2001 to reach the semi-finals in Blackpool before making the quarters in Dublin.”

“We even saw what he still could do in the 2016 Grand Slam of Darts, where he was very popular with the crowd and progressed out of the group stage, so there will always be that glaring ‘what if’ surrounding a career that was underpinned by his commendable levels of loyalty to the BDO.”

“When you compare Martin’s talent and his continued improvement from 1994 to 2011 with the talent of the crop of PDC players throughout the peak years of his career then I’m pretty sure he’d have picked up majors if he’d come across.

I’m also sure many other darts fans and pundits would say the same.”

"I don’t want this to take any shine off what Wolfie achieved in the BDO because he’ll always be remembered as an all-time great, I just think it’s a shame we didn’t see him more often in televised darts," he added.

“However, I honestly don’t think he regrets not making the switch in his career, even in light of what eventually happened to the BDO. His affiliation goes much further back to his England shirts, his amazing fans and Olly Croft.

The only regret he may have is that he didn’t bank as much money as he could have because based on his talent, his career earnings deserve to be doubled at least.”