Gary Anderson gives his brutally honest assessment on the new generation of darts players after he made it through to the second round of the World Matchplay.
Two-time World Champion Anderson saw off Luke Woodhouse 10-5 at the Winter Gardens before calling on the next generation to ditch their phones and start communicating with people.
Anderson, 54, is competing with 18-year-old Luke Littler and the other new wave of darts players at this year’s event in Blackpool.
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Gary Anderson admitted he is running out of time and just wants to “soak” it all in
He said: “I was sitting thinking the other day, having a talk with [Ian] White, [Adrian] Lewis, [Phil] Taylor, [Kevin] Painter, we used to sit and have a cracking laugh.
“Nowadays, I’d rather sit like this. Nobody talks to anybody. You don’t have a good laugh, you don’t have a bit of banter. You need to have a laugh.
“Doesn’t matter what you do in life, on a building site, office, you’ve always got to have a laugh. Nowadays, there’s not much of that going about.”
The 2018 World Matchplay champion continued: “The youngsters are boring. Absolutely boring. You talk to them, they’re too busy looking at their phone.
“They’re sitting on their phones with their b***** earphones in. Don’t talk to you. It’s a completely different life.”
Anderson had stopped the rot for the seeds after all the ranked players lost in Sunday’s afternoon session, with Damon Heta, Rob Cross, Wright and Dave Chisnall all dumped out.
‘The Flying Scotsman’ added: “The youngsters, they’re here to do their job. They’ve realised they’ve got a great chance in life to make a lot of b***** money, buy their first house, then their second house.
“But they need to calm down and think: right, this is my job. That’s it.”
‘Dream come true for Bunting’
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Stephen Bunting can’t wait to take on Gary Anderson at the World Matchplay on Tuesday evening
World No 4 Stephen Bunting survived a dogfight with Ryan Joyce to advance with a 10-8 victory and set up a clash against Anderson in the next round on Tuesday.
Joyce came from 8-4 down to level the contest at 8-8 when Bunting appeared to be distracted while looking to close out from 45, and was then a whisker away from going 9-8 up as he narrowly missed double five.
Bunting responded with a 180 and then checked out from 41 to secure his progress, but could not hide his frustration.
“I’m so disappointed,” he said. “We had a battle last year. Thankfully I’ve not gone the distance this year and I’ve saved a bit of energy for the next round.
“We go on we’re in the next round. I really look forward to playing again. I’m going to play Gary Anderson on this stage, it’s a dream come true for me.”
‘The Bullet’ later spoke about facing an ageing Anderson. The 2014 Lakeside champion said: “He’s probably not as good as he was three, four or five years ago. He’s a stalwart in PDC history, in the BDO when I used to play there too.”
Who will win the coveted Phil Taylor Trophy?
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Highlights of Luke Littler’s first-round game against Ryan Searle in the World Matchplay
World champion Luke Littler, three-time winner Michael van Gerwen and Gary Anderson are still in the £800,000 event.
Sunday July 27 will also feature the fourth staging of the Betfred Women’s World Matchplay, featuring eight players competing across one session – with Beau Greaves having won the 2023 and 2024 events.
Sky Sports will once again be the home of the World Cup of Darts, World Matchplay, World Grand Prix, Grand Slam of Darts and more! Stream darts and more top sport with NOW
