Gerwyn Price finally relishing World Darts Championship for one key reason

Close your eyes, and you can picture the image. 

Gerwyn Price is trailing 3-1 in his 2023 World Darts Championship quarter-final clash with Gabriel Clemens. The crowd are onto him. ‘The Iceman’ is melting.

In need of a comeback, he returns to the stage, albeit with one glaring addition: a giant pair of black and red ear defenders that look better suited to an airfield than Alexandra Palace.

The spectacle, which reverberated around all corners of social media, represented the nadir of Price’s relationship with the sport’s often merciless fans, cementing his status as the pre-eminent pantomime villain of his era.

Even before that, Price could have been forgiven for not relishing his annual appointment with the Ally Pally audience, where warm welcomes were very rarely extended to the Welshman 

The fact that his World Championship triumph came in 2021, when there were barely any spectators due to coronavirus restrictions, is not a coincidence.

Fans, though, are a fickle bunch, and just two short years on from his ear defender outing, the landscape appears far different. So much so that Price finds himself with an unusual feeling ahead of this year’s World Championship: genuine excitement.

‘Honestly, the crowd this year or the last two years has been fantastic,’ Price tells Metro. ‘Wherever I’ve gone, I seem to get more support now than ever. They’ve totally flipped and started to support me.

‘It just feels like every time I get on stage now, I seem to get the support, whether it’s in England, Europe, anywhere in the world. Personally, it’s the first time I’ve actually really looked forward to going to Alexandra Palace.’

Away from the oche, Price couldn’t be further from ‘The Iceman’ moniker he assumes under the bright lights. When we speak a week out from the tournament, the 40-year-old is reserved and softly spoken, but still carrying a quiet confidence after what has been a productive year on tour.

‘I think I’ve probably been one of the more consistent players this season,’ he says. ‘I’ve done really well on the floor events and the European Tour. 

‘I’ve done okay in the big TV majors, but not enough in those as what I would want personally. I’ve reached a couple of semis and stuff, but just felt short. Overall, I’ve had a really decent season.’

‘I need to be more consistent at the right time’

Price’s two semi-final visits in majors this year have both come last month at the Grand Slam of Darts and the Players Championship Finals. On those occasions, it was the two Lukes – Humphries and Littler – that got the better of him.

Regardless, such runs mean Price arrives at Ally Pally as one of the field’s most in-form players, albeit still searching for his first TV major title since the 2021 Grand Slam.

‘I’ve just needed to be a little bit more consistent at the right time,’ he admits. ‘I’ve got myself in good situations, but then I have to take my opportunities. But on another day, I’ll go my way. 

‘So it’s just being in the moment and taking the opportunities. And this season I have in certain games, but not in the biggest ones.’

If I meet Littler and I’m on my A-game, I will come through

Price begins his journey at this year’s Worlds against Czechia’s Adam Gawlas, while the expanded 128-man field means he must win two games to ensure he is back at Ally Pally after Christmas. ‘That’s when the real tournament starts,’ he jokes.

And should ‘The Iceman’ navigate his way into the latter stages of the tournament, there is the potential of a mouthwatering quarter-final clash with defending champion, Luke Littler.

Having reeled off six consecutive wins against Littler, Price has now not tasted victory in their last eight contests, a run that stretches back to April of this year. Such a record would surely weigh heavily on even the most self-assured of shoulders, but Price’s confidence appears undented.

‘Luke has practically won all the big majors this year, but he’d probably swap one or two of those trophies to get past me and have a good run in this one,’ he says of the defending champion and new world number one.

‘I think there’s a couple of times I’ve played this Luke this year where I should have won and have let him off the hook. In the Grand Prix, I had doubles to win the match and let him come back into it.

‘In the Players Championship Finals, he played absolutely out of his skin, probably the best he could play against me, and I still had opportunities and let it slip in certain patches. 

‘I haven’t been firing on all cylinders, but if we meet and I’m on my A-game, I will come through that match.’ 

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