Stephen Bunting ended curse at Blackpool: ''Focused solely on just ending that five year hoodoo"

Stephen Bunting finally managed another win at the World Matchplay earlier this month. On his own website, 'The Bullet' looked back on his participation at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool.

The former Lakeside champion has indicated in the past that the Winter Gardens is his favorite playing venue, but his results there, however, have been underwhelming. In his first nine appearances at the World Matchplay, Bunting lost seven times in the first round.

His last win at the World Matchplay dated back to 2019, but this curse came to an end during the last edition. Bunting managed a hard-fought victory over Ryan Joyce (12-10) in the first round.

Bunting was leading 8-5 earlier in the match, but saw Joyce come back to 9-9 requiring an extension. In the extension, "The Bullet" still managed to pull out the victory.

“Arriving at Blackpool, I was fully aware of my poor record there so focused solely on just ending that five year hoodoo and getting a win under my belt," said Bunting. "It was a tough slog against Ryan [Joyce] but I was absolutely thrilled to get over the line.

One round later, Bunting's tournament came to an end after all. The reigning Masters champion lost 11-7 in the second round to Luke Humphries, who would eventually take the title in Blackpool.

“But I wasn’t able to find my top gear in the next round and to be fair to Humphries, his scoring was excellent which naturally creates more chances to win legs. As always, I will take away the positives. I gave the world number one a great game right until the end and that is certainly not easy to do.

Bunting is now focusing on the busy second half of the season, when most of the major tournaments will be played. “I won’t be too down hearted. There are a lot of big TV tournaments coming up over the next few months so I will dust myself down and be ready to go again at the Players Championship events in a couple of weeks time.