Zoran Lerchbacher could not mark his return to the European Tour with a win, but the Austrian was all smiles after his 6-2 defeat to Peter Wright at the Austrian Darts Open. After taking the lead, Wright ticked off four consecutive legs to give himself a definitive advantage. Lerchbacher kept his hopes alive by reeling back in one of the breaks, but Wright would not be fazed, seeing the tie out and booking his spot in the second round.
While darts is not his main profession anymore, Lerchbacher still felt at home on the stage and enjoyed his time playing against the two-time world champion in front of a home crowd. "It was absolutely wonderful for me. Once a year, I take the time for it. As I’ve said before, I stopped professionally about three years ago. I still enjoy playing darts, but I have different priorities in life now," he told Dartsnews.com after the match. "I actually felt very comfortable out there today. It took me a while, but I just couldn’t translate it into my performance. That’s probably down to my lack of practice. Still, it was an honour to stand up there with Peter Wright and play a bit of darts with him."
Lerchbacher, who has a solid career including four PDC World Darts Championship appearances (reaching the second round twice) and a quarterfinal in the World Cup of Darts in 2019, admitted he felt no nerves walking back on stage. "Honestly, that surprised me today — there really wasn’t any nervousness at all. I genuinely enjoyed it and soaked it all in." He explained his real issues on stage: "My issue has always been the setup around the stage. The practice boards are brightly lit with spotlights, exactly how a dartboard should be. Then you walk onto the stage and suddenly everything feels dark. Even little details matter to me — the practice setup is maybe five centimetres higher, the stage board eight centimetres. These are tiny things, but mentally they affect me."
Lerchbacher, who now runs an online shop, a physical store, a café, and has a wife, two children, and a grandchild, said he stopped seriously after COVID, around three years ago. "After 28 years of playing, I realised I honestly don’t need the attention anymore. So I decided to step away a bit, focus on other things, and build security for myself and my family through business. Thankfully, that’s been going really well." He also has a darts club connected to his venue with nearly 60 members and still travels to tournaments with motivated players from the club. "I don’t play that many events myself anymore. Sometimes I play steel-dart events, and apparently I’m third in some ranking somewhere — I honestly didn’t even know that, because tomorrow I’m back at work again."
The reigning Styrian state champion, Lerchbacher sees those events as leisure time now. "These days it’s hard enough finding staff, and we run two businesses with basically three and a half people. There’s a huge amount of work." He added: "When my wife tells me, 'Okay, you’ve got a day off,' then I enjoy it with my people. Maybe I go play a steel-dart tournament or travel somewhere for a day just to relax and not think about work. But I also want to stay visible because I own a darts business, I’m still part of the darts scene, and I sell darts equipment. You need to maintain a presence. For me, those appearances are also a form of promotion — people see that the owner is still involved and still competing now and then."
