Alan Soutar heads back to pro-tour after worlds heroics

The Arbroath fireman made it through to the last 16 of the tournament before his terrific run was brought to a halt by Callan Rydz.

Rydz secured a 4-1 win over the local star with Soutar admitting afterwards he was far from at his best during the tie.

Despite beating the fancied Mensur Suljovic and Jose de Sousa, following his opening round victory over Diogo Portela, the Angus pro believes he didn’t play well all tournament.

Those watching on at home as Soutar stunned players higher up the rankings may disagree on that.

Reflecting on his match with Rydz, Soutar said: "I’m not disappointed, I got absolutely bossed by Callan.

"I’ve not qualms about that at all, I’ve not played well all tournament, and I got found out.

"He was brilliant.

"I was standing at the back thinking ‘I can’t compete’, 60s and 100s don’t compete with that.

“I wasn’t good enough at the end of the day.”

The Scottish players, who came in for regular hostility from the Alexandra Palace crowd, ironically had one of their best tournaments to date as a collective.

Willie Borland’s nine dart finish was one of the highlights of the competition, Gary Anderson played some of his best darts in months, Soutar produced some stunning fightbacks during his run and Peter Wright would go on to win the whole thing on Monday evening.

This was Soutar’s first crack at the worlds and he’s thirsty for more.

But he knows he has to earn his place at the big events and is remaining grounded despite his recent performances.

Immediately after being knocked out of the competition he returned north to his family and job.

In terms of his darts, he’ll return to smaller stages and floors as the 43-year-old aims to make a dent in this season’s pro-tour.

"It’s been a great learning experience,” he added.

"Everything that’s happened over the past two weeks has been amazing for me, the profile on social media and the profile worldwide is tremendous.

"It’s my first year and if we’re now 51st in the world after one year, where are we going next year?

"Let’s see.

"Let’s go back to the pro-tour now and see what happens.

"All I’m thinking about is retaining my tour card – that doesn’t sound very ambitious but, in the first two years, you need to consolidate what you’ve done and then you can set in place plans to do a bit better.”

The tournament reached its conclusion on Monday night with Scot Wright doing enough to edge out England’s Michael Smith.

An Alexandra Palace thriller saw the lead change hands multiple times, before Wright finished strongly to lift the Sid Waddell trophy for a second time in three years thanks to a 7-5 win.

For Smith, it was a second World Championship final defeat.