1 week Ago
To say the 51-year-old has been a dark horse at this week’s Grand Slam of Darts in Wolverhampton would be an understatement. Ranked 56th in the world and having never gone beyond the last-16 at a major tournament before, the Clonoe native has had to upset the odds all the way to the last-eight and shows no signs of slowing down now that he’s gotten there. Already having knocked out former world champions Raymond van Barneveld and Gerwyn Price in qualifying, and having emerged from a group containing defending world and Grand Slam champion Luke Humphries before knocking out World No.
12 Danny Noppert in the last-16, Mansell has been in a rich vein of form. But while things are going swimmingly on the stage this week, just two weeks ago the Co Tyrone man was walking a tightrope, unsure whether he’d even be at the year-ending World Championships. It was only once his place at Alexandra Palace was officially confirmed thanks to a run of solid Players Championship performances that it felt like a weight lifted off him.
The next day, he went to qualifying for the Grand Slam and promptly hit a 111 average in his opening match against Matt Campbell before beating Van Barneveld and Price to reach the group stages, and now he is preparing for a first career ranked televised Quarter-Final against Scotland’s Cameron Menzies. "The next day was essentially a free shot at trying to get into another of the major tournaments and I went to the qualifiers on Friday and played really well,” recalls Mansell. “When that Thursday night happened, Friday morning felt completely different.
I arrived here knowing I was playing well, I just needed to prove it again and thankfully that’s happened." His form has been trending in the right direction for a while, Players Championship wins over Michael van Gerwen and the in-form Jermaine Wattimena backed up by running Mensur Suljovic and Noppert close in respective knockout games. Indeed, the latter two came as a source of frustration as Mansell missed multiple match darts in both of them to progress.
But those displays, as much as they frustrated him, were evidence that the Clonoe Cyclone was doing the right things to be on track for a big performance at some point. "I knew I was playing well but just wasn’t taking advantage of my opportunities,” surmises Mansell. He’s timed that form perfectly for this week, though.
Drawn in a brutal group containing World No.1 Humphries, 12-time major champion James Wade and the always tricky Rowby-John Rodriguez, Mansell would hit a 100.87 average in an opening 5-3 win over Wade and then victory by a similar score-line over Rodriguez would ensure his place in the last-16 regardless of a 5-1 loss to Humphries in his final group match.
And while some thought his form might not extend to the longer format – the group games were played over best-of-nine matches but the last-16 was best-of-19 – the Clonoe man put those thoughts to bed with another outstanding performance in the first knockout round against Noppert, reeling off six straight legs at one point and going 10-for-15 on the doubles to claim a fully deserved 10-7 win and a place in the Quarter-Finals. There were rocky moments, particularly as Noppert fought back from going six legs down to close within one, but Mansell shut the door emphatically with an impressive final few legs, with an 120 checkout in the last leg sealing his place in the next round. "That's something I’ll be able to go back to as the games get longer, that I was able to come through that and get things back on track.
Hopefully that will work in my favour,” says Mansell, reflecting on holding off Noppert’s comeback to still prevail. "There’s no lack of confidence right now. I had three days in a row on TV and if I was playing in any other tournament, I probably wouldn’t have had back-to-back days.
So this has been really good for my confidence. I’ve played really well and the repetition has helped me feel a lot more comfortable. "When I beat Gerwyn, there’s probably a lot of people who were looking from the outside and saw that as a shock or assumed that Gerwyn didn’t play well.
I’d like to think how I’ve performed since is actually respect to Gerwyn because it shows I deserve to be here and that I am playing well, I didn’t just qualify and come bottom of the group, I’ve gone on and performed well.” To say this has been an upset to his own personal formbook wouldn’t be inaccurate, either. In his 18-year career, prior to this week Mansell had only reached the last-16 at one major tournament, the 2014 Grand Prix, and struggled to consistently put together runs But then sometimes players are just waiting for that one chance to prove themselves – this week Mansell has found his and taken full advantage.
"It's difficult because you can’t say you’re going to win something unless you’re in it. Until a couple of weeks ago, I couldn’t have said my goal was to win the World Championships because I wasn’t in it,” concedes Mansell of his approach year-to-year. "For me, most of my year is trying to qualify for televised events, so I don’t even look at trying to win them because there’s the hard work of trying to get into them in the first place.
I always thought if I could play well then I could go far, I just haven’t played well enough when I’ve had my opportunities. "I’ve probably gotten what I’ve deserved with my performances.” If his performances are to be rewarded this week then it could be a special tournament for Mansell at the Grand Slam.
With Humphries and Dave Chisnall going out in the group stages, and having knocked out Noppert himself, the only seed left standing on his side of the draw is Rob Cross, who faces Martin Lukeman in Friday’s other Quarter-Final, with the winners to square off in Sunday’s Semi-Final. First he has to get past Scotland’s Menzies in the last-eight. But the way he’s playing right now, Mansell is not going to shy away from any kind of challenge and backed by some “incredible” messages of support from back home, he’s not booking any tickets back to Belfast any time soon.
"The averages have been pretty good and I’d been playing well in the qualifier coming in. Everything has been very good. Even against Danny, I thought the game got scrappy in the middle of it but when it came up on the screen I had a 99 average, I was surprised.
That shows there’s a little more in me yet,” smiles Mansell. "The Quarter-Final is just another game. Cameron is a good player but one of us has to win and I can’t see why it won’t be me.
I’m not looking at it as a Quarter-Final, I’m just looking at it as another opponent and if you win, you have another game to look forward to. "How far it goes, it will be good to look back on, but right now but I’m in tournament mode and it’s just about getting over the line in the next game.”.
