Van Duijvenbode looks back on busting 180 at World Championship debut: "It's your dream coming true but it's more of a nightmare"

Dirk van Duijvenbode is now the Dutch number two and is flying high on the oche finally achieving his darting potential including reaching a maiden major final at the World Grand Prix.

As part of a new series, the PDC's Dan Dawson asks 20 questions to players in an idyllic setting while they go on a walk. Among the topics included what he'd be doing if he wasn't a darts player as well as his best friends on tour.

"I'd probably be in sales," said Van Duijvenbode. "All my family does it for companies in plants and flowers so that's what I like."

"I think Maik Kuivenhoven because he lives close to me, we practice together a lot. Geert Nentjes, he comes from a village where I used to live. We started in the same places and Ron Meulenkamp I used to share rooms with him."

Read also

VIDEO: PDC stars take part in second episode of Who Tweeted This

Ranking best moments

As well as reaching the World Grand Prix final, he also reached the Quarter-Final of the World Championship and he ranked both achievements.

"That would be World Championship and World Grand Prix final. I think they're like equal in results, I didn't win both of them and I did well on both of them."

"The World's you seem to enjoy because you have a lot of time in between your games sometimes. You spend over Christmas, you spend over the New Year and in the Grand Prix you just play play so you don't seem to enjoy it in the moment afterwards."

'Nightmare' debut at Ally Pally

He also discussed his worst moment and one which has now become infamous in his bust at the World Championship against Raymond van Barneveld on debut which he admits set him back.

"The 180 against Van Barneveld of course. It was devastating in a way because it's your dream coming true finally playing in the World's but it's more of a nightmare. You lose all of your confidence and you get reminded of it a lot of times and you remind yourself of it.

"I was close to getting to television events again and I got scared, what if I bust it again and then my results went down again but that's why I went to a mental coach to sort that out and it helped."