John Walton was on the brink of seeing off Les Wallace before being embroiled in a real battle as he edged through 3-2 at the World Seniors Darts Championship.
"I fluffed my lines in the third set. I could've been doing the interview an hour ago but Les came back, fair play to him. It was a frustrating game, you know what you can do but it leaves your hand and it's spinning and going wherever they want sometimes," said Walton post match.
Returning to stage action though has brought the fire back for the former World Champion.
"I've missed that. Both me and Les turned around and said how fantastic this is. Can't wait for the next one to be honest."
Next up is John Part and he isn't expecting anything due to only a few names having recent stage time.
"To be honest, each game is as it comes, I didn't play well up there. Neither did Les but I scraped through and lucky me. No advantage against John, just play the dartboard and if they go they go and if they don't, they don't."
"I'm expecting John to go up there and batter the dartboard like he does but who knows, has anyone seen John Part play for a year or so. He's an unknown."
"Phil Taylor is (also) an unknown, no-one knows how he's been practicing so it's going to be fun."