"That was an easy game to win. Only time Adrian's ever beat me on telly as well" - James Wade recalls infamous 'Windgate' World Championship semifinal loss to Lewis

Arguably the greatest player never to win the World Championship, James Wade begins a 23rd consecutive challenge later this month at the Alexandra Palace. Despite reaching the semi-finals on four separate occasions though, 'The Machine' has a bit of a love-hate relationship with the PDC World Darts Championship.

"I enjoy it - ish. It's just Christmas though, isn't it? Yeah. I don't want to be playing darts at Christmas," Wade says in conversation with Sky Sports. "I want to be at home. Yeah, it kind of ruins Christmas. You're robbed of Christmas. I've got young children now so I actually do like Christmas. I genuinely do like it. I love seeing their little faces and their little eyes light up. But yeah, it's a kind of ****** time to have it, isn't it?"

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Just because he doesn't exactly like it, doesn't mean that Wade can't understand why the World Championship is held over the festive period. "It's obvious why we have it because Christmas is a great time to capture an audience," the 41-year-old notes. "It's a great business model and it's a great idea, and it works really well, but it's not so great for people that have to work around it."

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In Sky's recent Game of Throws: Inside Darts documentary, Wade is open and honest about his battles with bipolar and ADHD and how his diagnoses affect his darts career. "I have good weeks and bad weeks. So I just change like that," he explains. "It's never been my ability or down to my throw. There was one time when my throw went a bit wayward, but it's always down to how I feel and what space I'm in. It's how I am, not the surroundings. If I'm in the wrong place, I'll interpret everything as a negative, everything I don't want to do, everything that's against me."

In a fierce battle ground like the World Darts Championship, that can then lead to issues for the eleven-time PDC major winner. "It is a problem. It takes mind. And my mind... I don't know how many times a year I get it where I have the best part of three weeks with a clear mind without having a little wobble or a meltdown," he continues. "I don't know. I probably can do it. Probably have done it but not very often. I'll have some bad days in there somewhere. That's me."

Wade during his walk on at the 2024 PDC World Darts Championship

Given his eleven major titles and four semi-final appearances, the fact that Wade has never reached a world final is one of the big outliers in darting history. His best chance to date, came against Adrian Lewis back at the 2012 edition, where he eventually lost 6-5 after the infamous 'Windgate' incident. "Adrian Lewis, when he complained about the wind and I did the gentlemanly thing and walked off," Wade recalls. "That was an easy game to win. It's the only time Adrian's ever beat me on telly as well. That was definitely an easy world title. I would have bashed [Andy] Hamilton in the final, I'm sure."

His most recent close call came against Michael Smith in 2022, falling to a 6-3 defeat. "Against Michael Smith, I just went into that and I didn't care," he admits. "When I'm like that, I can't change it. I just didn't care. But then I cared afterwards when I'd lost."

"Probably be a bad thing if I did win it, I think. Because I think I'd jack it in. I don't know why I'm still playing. Well, I know why I'm still playing because I want more money, but I might not be the best world champion if I was to be a world champion. I wouldn't be in a rush to attend everything and do everything," concludes 'The Machine'. "But I'm a little bit of a freak of nature with darts anyway because of how long I've been doing it for. It's only because I wasn't very well a couple of years ago where I did slip outside the top 10. But I think I'm a little bit different in that way anyway. I don't think anything really phases or affects me too much, apart from myself. I think I'm so conscious about myself that I put everything secondary, you know? Just try and make sure I behave and make sure I'm in a good place. It's exhausting at times."

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