Raymond Smith recounts 15 hour journey to go to World Darts Championships qualifier: ''I thought I hadn’t played enough games to qualify''

Raymond Smith has qualified for the World Championships next week and the Australian told 'TungstenTales' how he almost missed the qualifiers.

“It was quite a difficult scenario I thought I hadn’t played enough games to qualify but then I got a call on Wednesday night saying that nominations are closing and they don’t have mine. I just ignored it because I didn't think I played enough, fortunately my manager nominated me and on the Sunday I was on my way down to Sydney.”

Thanks to Smiths manager he has now qualified for this years World Championships, however he will be wanting to respond with a better performance to last year,

“I was pretty happy with the consistency, I absorbed a lot of pressure from Jamie who was solid - I think the first set was fantastic.”

“There’s a lot of things to be disappointed with in that one [Mervyn King match] I thought I was mentally prepared for everything that was to come. I started off really well and I held everything together for four sets and I don’t know what it was but when I was backstage and I wanted to ring my kids. All the stuff I thought I’d prepared for I hadn’t prepared for them well.”

Smith also mentioned where Australia is at as a country in terms of whether darts can be played as a full time job and he gave a very honest response.

“I don’t think we’re at that stage in Australia yet so it’s good to make an extra bit of cash on the side and set yourself up. It’s still a four/five year slog to get there, its going to cost me around 100,000 Australian Dollars to have a year and a half in the UK and I’m not winning that kind of money yet.”

A way the Australian can get a step closer to making it a full time job is being successful at Alexandra Palace. 'The Guru' had this to say about his aims for the tournament this year.

“My goals are always the same and that’s put a good effort in and make a good account of myself, the two games I’ve lost at Ally Pally have been very disappointing, if I lose I’d like to hold my head high that I did everything I possibly could. If I put in a solid effort that’s all I’m looking for.”