Nathan Aspinall has delivered an honest assessment on darts in Saudi Arabia after the first round of matches at the Riyadh tournament on Monday evening
Nathan Aspinall has admitted he doesn’t know if the PDC will continue its involvement with Saudi Arabia long-term, after concerns were raised about the atmosphere in Riyadh. Eight PDC players were joined alongside eight Asian representatives for the inaugural Saudi Arabia Darts Masters at the Global Theatre on Monday.
Aspinall, 34, was among the PDC players selected for the tournament and he got his Saudi Masters campaign underway with a whitewash 6-0 win over Lourence Ilagan. It was the third time Aspinall had gone up against Ilagan across the last month, after playing him at the World Championship and Bahrain Darts Masters.
But, despite his win, Aspinall was not convinced about the overall feeling inside the eerily quiet arena in Riyadh. Indeed, after worries emerged regarding the atmosphere – or lack of it – at the Global Theatre, world No.14 Aspinall claimed some fans “were not all there” in a brutal assessment of the crowd.
When asked if this could be the start of a long fruitful relationship with Saudi Arabia, Aspinall replied: “I don’t know. There is definitely a long way to go. It’s certainly different. I am not stupid, I feel like they were not all there off their own accord shall we say. It was quite a small venue but you’ve got to start somewhere.
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“Everything needs to start somewhere and as long as people walk away from this week and say, ‘we really enjoyed the darts’ and the Saudi Arabian press really enjoy the darts there is no reason why not. I’ve enjoyed my time out here so far, there is worse places to be. I could be sat in Glossop in the snow, so hopefully we can be back again.”
Aspinall was one of seven PDC players to book their place in the quarter-final in Saudi Arabia, with Luke Littler, Luke Humphries, Stephen Bunting, Michael van Gerwen, Gian van Veen and Gerwyn Price joining him for Tuesday’s action at the Global Theatre. Also completing the last eight is Man Lok Leung, who stunned Danny Noppert to beat the Dutchman 6-3 and secure a rare win for the Asian representatives.
Stockport-born Aspinall is aiming to have a positive run out in the Middle East after missing out on selection for the Premier League earlier this month. He was snubbed by the PDC despite an improved season on the circuit.
The former World Matchday champion reached the final at the Players Championship Finals and the quarter-final at the World Championship, World Masters and UK Open. He also managed to make the semi-final in the Premier League before losing to Luke Humphries at the O2 Arena in London.
Explaining how he discovered his exclusion from the eight-man Premier League line-up, Aspinall said last week: “The only difference that was hard this year was that we were at an event and I was travelling with Stephen Bunting on a plane and he got a text message at 3.15pm saying he was in, I got a text at 3.21pm saying I wasn’t in.
“It was a difficult travel home. Matt Porter explained the reasons why I wasn’t in. I felt like I backdoored it last year, I probably didn’t deserve it last year. I felt like I deserved it this year if I did get it.
“You take the rough with the smooth, I am not dwelling on it. I haven’t put anything on social media because I can’t be bothered with people jumping on it. I have accepted the decision, we move forward, and it gives me the hunger and fight to not miss out again.”
