I used to be a pub landlord before becoming World Darts champion… the heckling taught me to deal with Ally Pally

PUBS and darts go hand in hand, but there’s not many people that can say they went from pub landlord to World Darts champion.

Gary Anderson can make that claim though with the darts star honing his craft in the pub that he used to run.

Anderson used to run the Wellington Arms in Rooksbridge, Somerset and now he is a two-time PDC World Champion.

And the Flying Scotsman even thinks his days playing in the pub helped prepare him for his future successes including dealing with the intimidating atmosphere of venues like the Ally Pally.

Speaking to the , he said: “I learnt to play at the pub, that’s where the darts board was.

“It starts in the pub leagues and then through the Super League, international and eventually, for those who are brave enough, into the PDC (Professional Darts Corporation).

“And you’ve still got the heckling in the pubs. In a town with two teams that are rivals, it gets interesting – it’s all fun and games!”

But despite being one of the brave ones that has made it professional, Anderson still thinks pub darts is important.

He even suggested that there needs to be more done to make sure more people are getting into darts via the pubs.

“Darts is free, you can always play darts even if you’re a bit hard up,” he said.

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“We need to get darts back to pubs. People watch TV and then drag themselves to the dart board at the pub. Any pub could be full of people watching darts.

“Sky Sports has taken it through the roof. Six or seven years ago if we’d said what we are doing now people would have laughed at us.”

Anderson is currently 23rd in the world rankings and has had a superb career building on his days in the pub.

The 52-year-old has previously been world number one and won back-to-back world championships in 2015 and 2016.