James Wade took down Stephen Bunting 3-1 at the World Grand Prix to move through to his eighth Quarter-Final in the tournament, and he now faces Gian van Veen. After the win, Wade touched on a myriad of topics, declaring Gary Anderson the best scorer he has ever seen — but with a significant caveat.
"I beat a world-class player and I beat him convincingly, so it's nice when you do that. Shall I tell you what was really, really surprising? I watched the game before when Gary played Niels Zonneveld. It's just, that proved to me that every amazing dart player has a bad day and that almost relaxed me going on to my game, you know," said Wade to the media including DartsNews.com.
Going further into Anderson, Wade believes he needs to get his flowers a bit more. "I watch superstars and Gary Anderson is a superstar. I mean, I think people need to take the hat off a little bit more and respect the man for what he's done and what I watched the game before. It was quite nice for me to watch that because I was like, oh my God, he's human, and that probably relaxed me for my game." Asked about missing the old generation of darting stars of Taylor, Barney and others, Wade laughed that he does, but there was only one player he couldn't actually beat. "I do, I do because there's only one of them I couldn't beat. So yeah, just happy, thank you very much."
Despite being a top darting star for decades, Wade admits the nerves still get him and that he doesn't want to be up there a lot of the time. "I don't know, I don't know. I get nervous as hell, make myself feel ill through it, don't want to be involved in it, just want it to be over and done with quick. So am I more equipped or do I just deal with the crappy end of the stick better than others? I don't know. It's so nerve-wracking, it's awful. I get really, really nervous and I can just be honest and just say what I said before, it's really, really hard work."
Heading back onto Anderson, Wade said sincerely that Anderson is one of the greatest if not the greatest scorer he has ever seen, but that he sees those days as being towards being over. "He is, 100%. I mean, I'm not being funny, I've played against every dart player in the world and he is the best scorer in the world when he's on his very, very best. I think those days have gone though, I don't think we're going to see those scoring from Gary Anderson ever again. But my God, when he was on, he was the very, very best scorer I've ever seen. The only thing that defined and detached him from the very, very best was the finishing, and Phil Taylor was a little bit better."
Asked if he is on the same level as Anderson and Taylor and the ilk, Wade sees his own point of view to his superstar level but that he is still happy to be alive and kicking. "By God no, no, no, no, no. But facts and figures talk for themselves. I'm not put on a pedestal like that and it is what it is. I'm just happy to still be about and still whooping the youngsters, so that's good."
Seeing the love of the crowd, he said that he didn't against Bunting, but that he will be there ahead of songs in the crowd as his longevity firmly speaks for itself. "I didn't feel it there, I didn't feel it there to be fair. I felt I outclassed Stephen and I felt I outplayed him by a country mile. But you know, crowds like songs and not players, and yeah, I'll be long after songs."
Asked how he regards Bunting, Wade said that Bunting is a hard worker and he is lazy and that in reality he feels bad beating someone with his family there to watch him. "I regard him probably, I'm not going to go, I shouldn't say those words because that's probably deemed as quite disrespectful. He's a quality dart player, you know, and I believe I should beat Stephen most of the time. But he's magical, you know, he's so consistent and so hard. Shall I tell you the difference between me and Stephen? Stephen's a hard worker and I'm lazy and I still think I should beat Stephen. So the truth be known, Stephen should probably beat me because he works harder and I don't. But yeah, happy to win, respect him, unfold. It feels a bit crappy, you know, when you beat someone in their family, right? And his son's here and his mate's here. That makes you feel a little bit crap. If I'm honest, a lot of people don't think like that."
Playing Dennis Priestley 20 years ago at the World Grand Prix, Wade spoke about how in reality every other player is retired and he is still knocking around, which shows his longevity and that he must be doing something right. "Oh, Uncle Dennis. I can't remember the game, you know, but I'm still doing all right and they're all retired, so that means a lot to me. Yeah, very, very fortunate to still be involved in the game. But to be fair, we're given so many opportunities and so much financial gain now. Why wouldn't you want to be involved in the game?"
