James Wade has seen and almost done it all in darts – there’s one major achievement left to tick off his list.
James Wade is well aware of the feeling of being the newcomer on the scene.
Scott started his major PDC title victory by becoming the youngest player to capture a title in this tournament, the world matchplay, in 2007.
But 11 major tournament triumphs almost two decades later, darts’ biggest prize remains an elusive component of Wade’s trophy collection.
Which is why, on the cusp of the World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace, The Machine is eyeing up a Littler party crash and taking home his first Sid Waddell title.
“I am. I am, yeah. I want to,” a wide-eyed Wade replied when asked by Express Sport if he is ready to win the World Championship.
He’s come bitterly close in the past. Heading into the 2025 edition of dart’s most prestigious tournament, Wade has made it to the semi-finals on four different occasions. Not once has he ever contested an Ally Pally final.
“The problem is with the World Championship, it’s a long time and it’s quite a few appearances for me to have a straight head. The last two TV tournaments I’ve been in I’ve been distracted.”
To the lesser-versed, that may seem like a fairly inoffensive assessment of his own game. After all, darts is an individual sport and being in the right headspace is paramount to success.
But for Wade, who has been diagnosed with ADHD and bipolar, keeping a ‘straight head’ can be a difficult task compared to his competitors.
“I can be on stage and not interested,” he continued. “I can be before the game and not interested, but on the very rare occasion, I can be super interested and properly in it.
Sometimes I look for that feeling and when it’s not there, I just think ‘Oh well sod it’,” explained Wade when asked about how the conditions have impacted his career.
“It could be for £10million, and I would love £10million more than anyone, well a lot of people. But if my mind isn’t there, there’s nothing I can do about it.
“I’d love to say I can switch my mind on and off, but I can’t. My whole life is like that. I do things that I know will really p**s my wife off and will really annoy her. I know it will, but I can’t stop myself and it is what it is.”
On different occasions, Wade has not been shy about talking about mental health and whether knowingly or not, he has been instrumental in promoting the subject in darts.
However, there was a time when Wade was rejected by everybody because of his condition.
He added: First time that I had gone into the Priory and come out I strode straight from there into the Uk Open.
I do not exaggerate and I mean it when I state had I and Johnson walked into the door of the practice room with about 100 players and everybody became hushed and there were just two who said hello to me.
All other people could not turn their eyes towards me. They are like I were more than a patient, a person having some sort of communicable disease. I think that is the most odd, I would point out darts in itself is still quite an archaic game and some of the associates of it aren’t the most progressive-minded.
There is no doubt that when he is on that kind of form his rivals sit up and take notice as there are few if any more dangerous men than the Wood from Worcester with three darts to seal a victory.
Wade is set for a first World Darts Championship and begins on Monday against Watimena or Bellmont if necessary.