Nathan Aspinall talks about darts' 'Luke Littler effect'
Nathan Aspinall chats to ManchesterWorld about the state of darts in 2024 and having plenty of rivals living nearby
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00:00I think.
00:01Brilliant.
00:02No problem.
00:03Brilliant.
00:04Thanks mate.
00:05That's great.
00:06Great.
00:07I need to hear from you.
00:08Hi, how are you?
00:09Yeah, nice to meet you.
00:10How are you doing yourself?
00:11Very well.
00:12Very good.
00:13Good.
00:14Yeah, so I've got a couple of questions here, touching obviously on the draw and then just
00:17a bit about kind of yourself, obviously being from around the sort of Greater Manchester
00:21area, so I'll just crack on.
00:22I'm happy.
00:23So obviously, yeah, the draw's been made there, you've got Luke Woodhouse in the first round.
00:27Is that kind of, in terms of it being a good way to start your defence in Blackpool, is
00:32it kind of, is it good or what's your thoughts on that?
00:35Yeah, I think it is, if I'm dead honest with you.
00:39Not because of the standard of player, because he's a fantastic player and he beat me before
00:44and he can beat me again, but I think for me, more than anything, it's his debut and
00:50I know what I felt like when I walked on that stage.
00:54I don't know, is this a video or is it, is it a video?
00:58Are you typing it?
01:00We'll be using the video, clips of the video here, you won't be in Hull.
01:06But yeah, I britched it the first time I walked on that stage.
01:11I was very scared.
01:12So, yeah, I think in that respect, I can use that as my advantage, you might be a bit nervous
01:19the first three or four legs, say, and I can get a good lead going into the first break.
01:23So, yeah, good draw, I'm happy with it, but I've still got to be on my A-game.
01:27Yeah, fantastic.
01:29And so how do you feel like the year has gone so far?
01:32You know, you're in the Premier League, you know, that's always very competitive, kind
01:36of week in, week out playing, but in general, you know, we're kind of halfway through the
01:39year now.
01:40How would you kind of sum up 2024 so far for yourself?
01:43Yeah, I can't swear, can I?
01:46No, it's been a weird one, really.
01:49I feel like I've done well, but I've not played well, does that make sense?
01:53So I made the semi-finals in a Masters, but I was rubbish all tournament.
01:57I've just missed out on the playoffs, but I've not really played that well in the Premier
02:01League.
02:02I've not really played well at all this year, but I've had some great results, you know
02:06what I mean?
02:07A semi-final at a TV event, just missed out on the playoffs in the Premier League.
02:12So yeah, ups and downs, I'm not happy with how I'm performing, but like I say, I'm getting
02:18some good results.
02:19So hopefully the second half of the year is better than the first half.
02:24Fantastic.
02:25And so obviously you touched on there, obviously I caught some of the previous interview where
02:28you mentioned obviously Luke Littler, I know he's become like a huge name in the sport,
02:33obviously another player from the North West and there's obviously in general, there's
02:37a lot of players from kind of Greater Manchester, Lancashire area and obviously yourself being
02:42from Stockport, do you kind of feel like you're sort of flying the flag for the town or is
02:46it kind of like, it's quite good to see so many players sort of being successful and
02:51coming from the North West kind of as a whole?
02:54I think like Lancashire is a county in Cheshire, they're probably the two best counties, so
03:03before professional level, county level, they're probably the best and obviously when I first
03:08started playing with Delphi and Antonio O'Shea from Stockport, good mates of mine now and
03:14they've kind of helped me at the early start, tell me what to do and stuff and I think if
03:18you look who's around the area within say 50 mile radius of me, you've got like Michael
03:24Smith, Dave Chislel, Stephen Bunting, Bradley Brooks, what's his name, I can't remember
03:31his name, Luke, Luke Littler, we've got him, you know there's so many players within a
03:3850 mile radius that are so good and in the top 32 in the world so it's good for us because
03:43we sit together as well and we do a lot of travelling together so now it's good but yeah
03:49it'd be nice to be another world champion, we've got Bunting and Mike Smith, I'm next.
03:54Yeah brilliant and so you touched on that obviously with you guys living kind of quite
03:58close to each other and obviously being from areas which aren't too far apart, is there
04:03sort of a, is there quite a big level of sort of camaraderie when you go on these trips
04:07especially you know the match play?
04:09Well I'm really good pals with Smithy, he's one of my best mates on the tour of Smithy
04:14so we do a lot of, we do stuff with Mike outside of darts as well whereas predominantly most
04:22of them I only kind of associate with him at darts but I think it's more like when we're
04:28travelling so like we do a lot of flights and so that we'll all book the same flight
04:33so it'd be like me, Joe Cullen, Mike Smith, Luke Littler, Luke Humphries because he's
04:38moved to Warrington I think, Worsley, so there's a few of us at the airport and it
04:44kind of helps us you know what I mean because you can get a bit lonely sat in an airport
04:47on your own so yeah in that sense it's good that we stick together and you know you're
04:53not travelling on your own, you've got a mate, the only problem is it's only me and
04:57Luke Humphries that'll have a lounge pass because the rest are too tight to buy one
05:01so me and Luke go on our own and they all sit in a table somewhere.
05:06Well at least you've got someone to share that with, at least you've introduced yourself.
05:10Well that's brilliant, I mean I've just got one more question really Ian, it's just
05:14kind of an overall kind of looking at the game as it is now in the current sort of year
05:18and the current climate so at this point in 2024, I know you've touched on the fact that
05:23there's a lot of younger players coming through, do you feel like darts in general is in a
05:29good place at the minute?
05:31Oh yeah 100%, it's the best place I think it's ever been, you know obviously the rise
05:37of, the little of effect as they call it, you know it's been amazing, it's got us to
05:44a new audience that probably had never watched darts before and I think Matt Porter and a
05:52few others have said it, it's okay watching it, it's getting them hooked on it, getting
05:58them to keep tuning in week in week out and again Luke's helped that but then we've had
06:03to perform and you know I think the figures for the Premier League were the best by a
06:08mile, they don't tune in every week just to watch one game, they tune in to find out who's
06:16going to win that night, do you know what I mean?
06:17So that's testament to the rest of the lads so I think it's worked, new audience because
06:21of Luke but we've kept them watching and I think it's probably the best place he's ever
06:25gone, darts has ever been in sorry and hopefully it keeps continuing because the more people
06:31watch it, you know the bigger crowds we get, you know the more successful we are.
06:36Yeah it's just going to keep on growing isn't it, I suppose as you said if you have sort
06:39of a loyal, a bigger loyal audience kind of tuning in it's going to be a good thing I
06:44suppose.
06:45You never know, I might be on 300 grand a week too, like Ronaldo.
06:47Who knows, fingers crossed.
06:4812 right down my face.
06:50Yeah well that's brilliant, that's all the questions you had so yeah thanks so much for
06:55your time and yeah all the best for the rest of the year.
06:58Yep, cheers Padraig, see you mate.