Interview; Krispy talks to World Number 7, Wes Newton

Well I promised more interviews during August, and I’m delivering!   While I like to introduce you to new and up n coming players, sometimes it’s an honour to be able to ask some questions of an established top player too.  So it’s great to bring you some thoughts from world number 7; someone I think you’ll all agree has been a star of the PDC in recent times, Wes Newton!

If you visit this site a lot, you’ll probably know I paid for my 2 day trip to the UK Open on the back of my winning bet on Wez to reach the final, which shows how much confidence I have in his abilities!

Q. How much has becoming a father changed things for you? Does it make you more determined to succeed at darts as a career?

Becoming a father has been the best moment of my life, it does make me more determined to succeed at darts cause I’m no longer playing for myself, I’ve got so much more to play for now.

Q. Most hard-core darts fans have known for some time that you’re one of the world’s best and most consistent players on the floor, how frustrating was it that it wasn’t really happening for you on TV? (That’s changed now!)

Very frustrating!  You know you’ve got the game but when its not coming out it drives you mad, thank god thats changed now

Q. Was there anything that suddenly clicked for you on the big TV stage, like you changed how you prepared, or do you think it was it just something that happened naturally with experience?

I think its something that comes with experience, it’s so much different playing on TV, Wayne Mardle once told it can take years to learn how to play on TV, I don’t know why but he was right

Q. Now you’ve cracked the TV tournament thing, do you feel you belong on that stage? What’s it like playing in front of so many fans?

Yes I feel at home on the stage now, can’t wait till the next one!  It’s an amazing feeling playing in front of so many fans, all cheering and singing when you win legs or hit max’s etc, cant beat the feeling when you win and you see the crowd cheering, it’s unbelievable

Q. Your move up the rankings has been relentless the last year or so how did it feel when you made that exclusive ‘top 10’ spot?

Was a great feeling, I’ve always set myself little goals at a time on climbing the rankings and I keep reaching them. I love the fact that I am now ranked no 7 in the world, its fantastic but I dont wanna stop there, gotta keep on climbing and aiming to get higher & keep bettering myself.

Q. The TV pundits often talk about the point you went ‘full time professional’ how hard a decision was that, and how do you feel now it seems to be paying off?

It was a very hard decision but its paying off so much now.  I tried before just working part time but its hard mixing all the travelling and work, in the end the decision was made for me as the job wasn’t offered to me as part time any more, I was told to ‘work full time or leave’ so was an easy decision to leave and go pro on the darts.  Its all worked out great I guess the timing was right to go pro for me.

Q. In your recent appearances at the UK Open, Matchplay and Euro’s, you come across as a really self-confident player, is confidence an important part of your game?

Yes I think it is but confidence only comes with success so you have to be playing well and getting good results to feel confident, at the moment I feel very confident in my ability

Q. You are one of the few players to have ever won back to back Pro Tour floor events, how hard is achieving that compared to playing through a TV tournament like the UK Open?

Very hard not only is physically tiring its very mentally tiring to, just gotta be strong and keep doing what your doing.

Q. Your name is now being mentioned when darts fans chat on forums about next year’s premier league line up, is that something you’re thinking about?

I guess every player wants to play in the premier league so its hard not to think about it, at the moment im just trying to keep climbing the rankings and get as high as I can and let other things look after themselves.

Q. I may be completely wrong, but for your ranking (now 7th!), your name doesn’t crop up as much as other players against darts exhibitions? Are they something you enjoy or avoid?

I’ve not done to many exhibitions really but I’m not bothered about that, I dont think doing lots of exhibitions helps your game.  I think Wayne Mardle and Peter Manley do more exhibitions than any other players but maybe they’ve been doing to much with PDC comps on top of exhibitions in the past few years, and it started to tell on their rankings, I don’t wanna burn myself out.

Q. How important is to have someone like Unicorn backing you? Does it give you an extra edge or confidence to be part of their ‘team’?

It gives you loads of confidence, knowing the best and biggest darts company in the world wants to join forces with you is immense, I’m so proud to be associated with Unicorn.  You only have to look at the players in team Unicorn to know how good a company they are, also knowing that you are one of the players in the worlds best darts team, excellent

Huge thanks to Wes, who will be one of the highest ranked players making the journey to Canada later this month for the re-start of PDC Pro Tour, showing just how dedicated to his darts he is.   I’m sure you’ll join me in wishing him the best of luck in the 2nd half of 2011, but if it’s anything like the first half, he won’t need it!

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