Gerwyn Price may have eased past Rob Cross 6-2 to book his place in the second round of the European Championship, but the Welshman was in no mood to celebrate his performance. Speaking to the media including DartsNews afterwards, Price admitted he was struggling with his points going into the board at a funny angle and branded his game 'not good enough'.
"I felt like I was struggling in the game, but then when I came off and I looked back at the screen as he came down the stairs, I was nearly a tonne, I was like, I need to start being too harsh on myself. I set myself standards and today I felt like it wasn't good enough," said Price. Asked if he genuinely felt that way, he pointed to how his darts were sitting in the board. "No, I still don't. I felt like my darts were sitting in the board really weird. If I'd hit a treble 20 and they were sitting down, I'd have to change and then the treble 19 was sitting awkward. So I felt like I was too much on the board when I didn't want to be. Usually, if you're first darts in the treble, it's a bit of rhythm. But I won, that's all that matters and I can move on to the next game."
Price is set to face Cameron Menzies in the second round, and he was more than confident he would have won his quarter-final even if Luke Humphries had been there in his way. Humphries has withdrawn due to illness, and Price said: "I think it possibly could be in the quarter-finals. Obviously, you look at your half of the draw and you see your path, but I just take game by game. If I had to play Luke in the quarter-finals, I'm more confident I'll come through that game. Obviously, he's gone out and I wish him well. I heard he's not very well and he's got a bad tummy or something. Obviously, he's not very well, but I just concentrate on my own game and I'm going to do what I can do. But yeah, it's opened the half of the draw up, I think."
Coming off the back of that World Grand Prix final, Price said he would previously dwell on defeats like that for days, but that he has now changed and it is less of an issue in his mind mainly due to the amount of events on the calendar. "Played fantastic in that game. Luke played brilliantly this afternoon to come back into the game. I think the fourth set where he hit a 180 and a 105 out, I think, and then gets it back to 3-1. But even after that, I should have won the set to go 5-4 up. The game's in my control, but Luke's Luke. The Lukes are Lukes. They play good and play well at the right time. I sort of slipped off and gave him opportunities and he took them. Years ago, I would dwell on it for days. But 30, 40 minutes, an hour later now, I'm just thinking, well, it's another game that's gone. The amount of PDC events we have these days, you haven't got time to think. So, just brush it under the carpet, move on and hopefully play better next time."
Asked to elaborate on the points sitting strangely in the board, and whether it was an equipment change or a one-off, Price said: "The point was a little bit different. But I don't think I've used points this long as in the steel points that I use. So, yeah, they're going well, that's good. Yeah, I sort of sat on the board a little bit weird today. But hopefully over the weekend, I'll start to be a little bit better than that. Sometimes it can just be the board. Sometimes they're packed a little bit too tightly and your dart doesn't really sit in as much. But I'm not sure. It could be the board. It could be the way I'm throwing. It could be the air. It could be anything. But, yeah, they just didn't feel like they were sitting right today and I had to switch on the board a bit too much."
