Wade looking for similar revival to 2018 as European Championship approaches: "An event that helped re-energise my career a couple of years ago"

With the whirlwind of a ProTour weekend, the rest of the UK were undergoing another Prime Minister change as Liz Truss resigned and James Wade in his latest column for the Daily Star said that it dominated conversation and gave his view on it.

"When you travel around to tournaments you can live in a bit of a bubble, but all I have heard this week is: “Is Boris coming back?” “Will there be a general election?” said Wade in his Daily Star column.

"I don’t know what will happen next, but it needs to get sorted fast because looking after the vulnerable people in our society and helping people understand and deal with the stress of this cost-of-living crisis should be dominating their time and efforts – not infighting and jockeying for position."

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ProTour to TV bright lights

After four days in Barnsley, the attention turns to the bright lights of Dortmund which he admits he prefers due to the one or two games a day instead of a sustained run.

"They are a lot lower key in terms of fanfare and production value, but the standard can be frighteningly high as people don’t have to deal with the additional pressure of TV cameras, lights, and a raucous crowd in their ear!

"I have always liked the intensity of TV tournaments, but these bring a different challenge as they are quick-fire (first to 6 legs), and the matches come thick and fast – you can literally win a game and be back on against a new opponent in a matter of minutes. To win a tournament you need to win six or seven matches in a single day, and it is hard to sustain your performance level to achieve that.

"I didn’t really have a deep run in any of the days, although there wasn’t a single day where I went out in the first round I just never really got going. On Saturday I lost 6-5 in a deciding leg to Gary Anderson during a 32 clash, and had a won that I felt that I was really starting to find my stride.

"Over the course of the week there was good performances from Damon Heta, Dave Chisnall, Rob Cross and Josh Rock – the latter winning his first title and one that, I am sure, will be the first of many.

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All in a tournament that saw his career revived back in 2018 and the only way has been up since then.

"The last few days will have certainly done me good. Having some intense practice ahead of a big TV event is important to me, so playing against my peers for the past four days will have sharpened me up ahead of that task.

"I am really hoping to show the very best of my game and lift another TV title in an event that help re-energise my career a couple of years ago when I took the trophy."