Paul Nicholson, introduced himself to a global darts audience in style at the 2008 PDC world championship, where it took World Number two, The Machine, James Wade, to halt the Australian’s scintillating run. This quarter final defeat which for all it’s promise

left Nicholson feeling shattered by the loss but knowing where he had to improve to win at this level. After this loss he decided to go from one side of the world to another and back again to prove himself and what an eventful year it’s been.

In a season that has featured off stage personal turmoil, crowd aggro at the UK Open and a tour of the British PDC tournament circuit that is more competitive than ever in its strength in depth, he has as now moved into the top 20 of the PDC Pro Players Championship through a string of impressive results culminating in his recent victory at the Australian Open Players Championship.
This improved ranking is crucial as it means automatic entry to all the big live sky tournaments including the 2009 world Championships and a chance to surpass last years run on the stage where all professional darts players will ultimately be judged, but this was all to come.

At the time of this interview on June 13th 2009 Paul was still fighting trying to improve his then ranking of 44th having only joined the European PDC circuit in March 2009, and was only a couple of hours away from his first round match against Mark Dudbridge at the Barnsley Metrodome weekend double header in South Yorkshire, England.

Performances on the Australian PDC circuit in 2007/2008 and in Major global tournaments had suggested he had the ability to win a PDC Pro tournament, subsequently proven in August, and perhaps hinted at even more to come, but in one glance around the room in Barnsley in June I could see former world champions, Dennis Priestley and John Part, in form Alex Roy, rising stars Jamie Caven and Colin Osbourne, even Terry Jenkins, match hardened from the elite Premier League which has been attracting record crowds in Britain’s major cities was here looking for this title. To win one round here is an accomplishment, to win the whole thing you have to go through over 100 of the planets most serious darts players, even the darts Buddha himself, Phil Taylor, plays in some PDC pro tour events.

In this professional company, inferior ability or mental weakness is ruthlessly punished with a swift exit, but the meritocracy that is professional darts means if you pay your membership fees you can come here and play these people and found out for yourself how good you are and the room is bustling with life and optimism from players trying to make a life in pro darts.

Barnsley is my home town and seeing these recognisable darts faces in a sports hall where I used to play 5 aside football has a surreal tinge to it. The PDC have transformed the building, their set up is efficient, modern, slick even. Prior accreditation arranged through the newspaper I work for I am welcomed by the friendly Security team and given my wristband allowing admittance to the tournament hall to interview Paul Nicholson.

Inside the hall PDC Media Officer Dave Allen explains the multi board tournament set up hanging all round the walls of the hall in uniform style, two tournaments in one weekend, prize money and ranking points in duplicate to be fought for. This is the factory floor of pro darts and the hum of the background activity resembles many other large working spaces in Britain. Players practicing and exchanging darts gossip, chatting to friends, managers and fellow competitors. First round matches are in 90 minutes time and the tension manifests itself in the players increasingly focused throwing, fiddling with equipment, some are just lost in their own thoughts, anxious for the action to start. It is one of the closed tournaments where the public cannot view the action live. Most players however bring allotted guests with them and with officials and entrants it all adds up to a crowd of 400 people plus.

D.S. I don’t want to put any pressure on you but I’ve had a bet on you on this weekend.....! I was discussing your chances with someone and we think you have a PDC tournament in you this year, you’ve already beaten a lot of very good players, do you feel you can string those results together and land a title, since the UK Blue Square how’s practice gone and how are you feeling now coming into this weekend?

P.N. I’ve worked really hard this week, not only on practice on the board but working on my fitness because days like this are different to playing on the T.V. because when you’re playing on T.V you have one game to play on each day that you need to peak for that part of the day, where as on a day like this you could be playing for 7 or 8 hours so you have to be fit. My practice has been going pretty well, I’ve actually switched to a new dart this week. The Unicorn Darts people have been putting these together for me for the last couple of months.

D.S. What weight are those darts Paul and can I have a feel of em?

P.N. Sure! They’re 20 gram. They are very similar to the ones I had before except the grooves have been changed slightly and re-positioned and the points have been grooved at the top so as to get a little bit of extra grip. Coming into this tournament I feel fairly confident, I’ve had a little bit of publicity this week! With what happened at the U.K open last week, but someone said to me there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

D.S. Well that leads into the next question, when you’re playing, you have a very intense persona, this is like a thread that goes through a lot of good players, like we were saying earlier about physical fitness, it’s not just about one match it’s about having that level of intensity that can get you through the a complete day, so how do you work on the mental side of your game or is it something you don’t have to work at?

P.N. I think it would be fair to say I work on it more than some other players, I think this game comes very naturally to a lot of guys but someone like me I’ve harnessed my attitude to it for years, but it was only about 18 to 24 months ago that I actually found what I needed to do to get the attitude to play well. I think that when I’m on T.V. my intensity raises itself and I do play better on a big stage. Sometimes that can manifest itself to the extreme which some people have expressed very strong opinions about on some darts forums, that they don’t appreciate it, but it’s a professional sport and we have to do what we need to win within the rules and I don’t think I’ve broken any rules. I think my level of intensity and passion for the sport especially when it’s televised has won me a lot of fans and maybe made me a few enemies but you’ve got to keep your enemies close as well as your friends!

D.S. I watched all the Blue Square, maybe it wasn’t a bad idea to stir things up a bit because it was compelling stuff, especially your match against Gary Anderson, you played very well and must have felt you could go deep into that tournament, but then you bumped into Ken Mather and his renta mob, how would you deal with that situation again, would you deal with it as head on?

P.N. I think after my game against Gary my confidence levels did go up considerably because before that tournament I’d gone through weeks of personal hell. I’ve recently gone through a divorce and other circumstances were peaking just before the event, which was really bad timing, so to beat someone of Gary Anderson’s calibre on that Thursday match...... it was a tiny bit unexpected, because of the confidence level that I took into the tournament, hence my intensity on the stage.
I was thrilled to get the win and I thought drawing Ken would be hard, I knew for a fact he’d already played 2 matches so he obviously was playing well. So at no stage did I take that match for granted even though he was a pub qualifier because pub qualifiers from what I’ve seen can do very well in that tournament so I went into the game with the same attitude as the game against Gary, I was intense perhaps even more so.

To be honest with you Ken deserved to win the game, he found a stretch in the middle that I don’t think many players on the circuit would have been able to live with. I wasn’t far behind him but he was better than me in that middle section and he was able to close out the game when he was a little bit behind. So I take my hat off to him, he played extremely well. With regards to the crowd situation, no doubt about it, I would handle it differently but because of certain things that had happened only a few hours before that game personally, I’d had some bad news from back home in Australia and I was a little bit emotional so one of the things that was actually said to me from the front row of the crowd just hit the wrong note and I reacted and I’m going to have to deal with the consequences.

D.S. From our perspective it was fantastic to watch, the armchair fans appreciate players reacting honestly and emotionally to situations, they don’t want to see robots up there and the darts fans we spoke to about it thought it was great stuff. Going back to something you said earlier about you found something 18 months ago that helped you work on the mental aspect of your game, is that something you can discuss with us?

P.N. For me a lot of players have a certain point in their career when they have a big turning point, whether it’s a win over a big player or whether it’s a tournament win.
For me it was the decision to try the PDC circuit in Australia and when I picked up a win on that circuit and I played better in that tournament than I had ever done in my career and that's with all due respect to all the darts I’d played over here as well.
On that day I just found a will to win that I’d never had before and there was a belief in my own ability, going in to the final, I’d taken out the best player in Australia at the time in the semi final and it was breeze, usually what would have happened is I would have got to that semi final and then the final and known I was getting nervous, but for the first time in my life I went into a final thinking, there is no way I’m going to lose here and I thought I’ve got to go into every game like that now. I can’t afford to have
any doubts about myself. So it was after that tournament, I thought, right, I’m going to really put the work in, put in the 3-6 hours a day, I’m going to make sure I’m fit, make sure I’m mentally strong, and since then I’ve picked up umpteen titles in Australia and I’ve done quite well over here as well.

D.S. You say 3-6 hours a day, is that practising on the board with additional physical training on top of that and what kind of fitness regime do you have?

P.N. A lot of cardio, I do quite a bit of bike riding, I do a lot of running as well and I do strength training too but because I used to be a qualified fitness instructor I know what kind of training is going to help my darts. I don’t do heavy weights but I do lots of repetitions, it’s about keeping the right muscles strong for a long period, not a short period.

D.S. Are you interested in muscle memory theories and the biomechanics of throwing darts?

P.N. Yes, its not about body building and building muscle mass, it’s about muscle endurance, because lets face it, a lot of people have this misconception about darts players that all they do is just drink beer and throw darts, but if you play darts the amount of hours we do you will find there are a lot of injured players out there, especially elbows and shoulders so you have to keep them strong.

D.S. Are you finding, this attitude to training is becoming more prevalent on the darts circuit or are you out there pretty much on your own with perhaps a handful of others doing this?

P.N. The more you talk to people the more you find how much they are doing, it’s about a 50/50 split now between those who do this and those who don’t.
For instance one of the Welsh Pro’s Barrie Bates earlier said he’d been on the weights all week, I think its becoming more important. You can win tournaments if you haven’t but a lot are beginning to become aware of the amount of repetitive strain injuries about.

D.S. Darts is going through a real Boom Period at the moment and attracting a lot of new fans, do you feel sports fans are getting disillusioned with football because they are finding it difficult to with identify the players, what they are earning, and the remoteness of their lifestyle, where as the darts players are more accessible?

P.N. I think with football, you can’t step onto that pitch unless you’ve been through an academy or you are a non league footballer who has a great season and is signed by a league club, but in this sport its much like poker in a sense, where you could potentially win an online competition and qualify for the big tournaments, like in darts.
If you have a degree of talent at a pub level, there is an opportunity for you to qualify and play in big darts tournaments. I think Ken Mathers performance at The Blue Square UK Open was testament to that. Or if you manage to get a sponsor you can come on the circuit, just like that. It’s not like the pro golf tour where you have to go through pro qualifying school to actually getting onto the tour. Darts is going to be like that in a couple of years where we will actually have to qualify to be on the tour but at this point in time you can pick up your darts, pay your entry, pay your pro tour subscription and you can play. So in a sense it’s more of people’s sport than a lot of others.

D.S. We’ve all seen the large crowds at the Darts Premier league, are these kind of stages a big ambition for a player like you and how far ahead are you looking in your career and are you going to be stopping in England now?

P.N. Yes I’m stopping in England now, we’ve all got immediate goals and mine is getting back to the World Championships at the end of the year. I’m trying to be realistic; I’ve only been over here since early March. I haven’t had the opportunity to play as many qualifying tournaments as other people and I’ve missed a couple of tournaments due to personal circumstances, so for me the goal is getting to Alexandria Palace and we have big tournaments like The World Matchplay and The Grand Prix coming up in the next six months as well but getting to those will be a bonus, I’ll have to play extremely well over the next two weeks to get into those, so my main focus is the World Championships and I’ll hopefully springboard from there because my plans changed in February, so instead of going back to Australia I stayed here.

D.S. What’s been your worst experience in darts so far?

P.N. I hate to say it because I don’t like to bring it up but being eliminated by James Wade at the quarter final stage of last years World Championship. I’m not ashamed to say I went back stage afterwards and cried my eyes out because on any other day I would have won that game easily but I think it was one of those times when I’d put in so much effort over a period of time that that day I’d reached the end and just ran out of gas. If that game had been a day earlier, I think I would have won it easily. Not winning that match cost me a lot of money in respect to getting into other tournaments and higher up the rankings. So I would say how I felt for the half and hour after that game is the worst feeling I ever had. You’ve got to be able to take the rough with the smooth in this game because you get so many ups and down. If you can’t fight those mental battles I think you are in the wrong sport.

D.S. If this match came around again this December how would deal with it?

I think I would prepare a little bit differently, I made the mistake after my first round match of going up to the north east of England for Christmas then came back to London and did a lot of travelling before these particular games. Now I would base myself in London, stay there and have a lot more rest.

D.S. We are currently organising an exhibition for Dennis Priestley at Barnsley Trades Club On July 17th. His opponents range from county players to social pub players, have you got any advice for them about playing in front of a large crowd?

P.N. My advice would be just to go up there and enjoy it. When I was younger, I didn’t play against many pro’s in exhibitions, I didn’t have that thrill apart from once when I was 18 years old and I played Phil Taylor, and I went up first, I had about two or three hundred people behind me and that was my first experience of playing in front of a big crowd. I was shaking like a leaf but I managed to get a few good scores but I think the key is in an exhibition if you think I’m going to go up and beat Phil Taylor that’s the wrong attitude to go up there with, so go up there, enjoy it and relax and have fun because there is probably more pressure on the professional than there is on the challenger. So if one of them beats Dennis Priestley it’s a big deal but if Dennis wins its just par for the course, so there is always more pressure on the professional.

D.S. We will put that in our programme and see if it gives them some encouragement against Dennis!
At Tonne Plus Darts we are fascinated by the mental side of the game and believe it’s an area that can be worked on. We have heard so many sports people talk about their bad luck costing them victory so we are doing an experiment, we are giving out self help books on the subject of good and bad luck to darts players and hoping they will read them and give us some feedback, you might think it’s a load of old bollocks or you might get something out of it, will you have a look at it and if we cross paths again we can see what you think of it and whether it changes your thinking on the role of luck in sport?

P.N. Sure, no problem. ( Paul accepted the book called ‘The Luck Factor, Four Simple Principles’, By Richard Wiseman. So when we interview Paul again we will found out if this has helped him at all. I have read this particular book and thought it could be helpful to Sports people as it challenges the basic misconceptions about the role of chance in our lives and why some people appear luckier than others.)

D.S. Are there any darts groupies?

P.N. You tend to get different ones at different places depending where you are in the country, you’ll find you do get a few darts groupies coming to all the tournaments but the majority of them come to the televised events, I know one guy and his friend who go to The UK Open, The Grand Slam, The World Championship, they go to everything and they are from Glasgow and you will see them in the front row at every televised tournament but I think this is a good thing, it shows people’s passion for the sport.

D.S. Who is your non darts sporting hero?

P.N. Joe Calzaghe without a doubt.

D.S. What qualities do you see in Joe Calzaghe that you admire?

P.N. A self belief that no other sports person from the British Isles has ever had. You can only liken Joe to Muhammad Ali for self confidence. I think if everyone had that kind of self confidence there would be a lot less problems in the world.
His drive and determination to beat everybody and not just on his turf but everybody else’s, I just saw a real warrior in him and that’s the kind of sports person I want to be. I think he’s a great example to children as well.

D.S. What’s the most obscure place you have played in, perhaps not for financial game but for some other motivation?

P.N. I think out of all the people you talk to in this room you probably found that I’ve played in some of the most obscure places on earth. In the outback in Australia I played in a place called Broken hill and that’s where they filmed Mad Max 2, I was 300 kilometres from anywhere. Broken Hill is a big mining village and it was literally like another planet. It was the inland championship in September last year and I got to the final. That was such a weird place and when I found out Mad Max had been filmed there, I thought, that makes sense!

Many thanks to Paul Nicholson for the interview and Dave Allen at The PDC for setting it up.

POST SCRIPT
Despite a first round defeat in the Barnsley Saturday tournament Paul Nicholson came out the Barnsley Metrodome double header with a strong semi final finish in the Sunday tournament and beat world number 4 John Part in Dinslaken Germany in the following event. You can contact Paul Nicholson or watch his progress at his web site www.paulnicholson.tv

His results were
Players Championship Barnsley June 12th 2009 (Saturday tournament)

1st Round Mark Dudbridge (14) 6-2 Paul Nicholson

Players Championship Barnsley June 13th 2009 (Sunday tournament)

1st Round Paul Nicholson 6-2 Gary Mawson
2nd Round Paul Nicholson 6-4 Mark Dudbridge
3rd Round Paul Nicholson 6-2 John MaGowan
4th Round Paul Nicholson 6-3 Justin Pipe
Q/F Paul Nicholson 6-4 Denis Ovens
S/F Colin Osborne 6-2 Paul Nicholson

German Darts Trophy Players Championship Dinslaken (Saturday) 20th June

1st Round Paul Nicholson 6-2 Alex Roy
2nd Round Peter Wright 6-4 Paul Nicholson

German Darts Trophy Players Championship (Sunday) 21 June

1st Round Paul Nicholson 6-2 John Part
2nd Round Steve Hine 6-5 Paul Nicholson