WE can’t quite claim Gary Anderson as a North-East world champion – but for a decade or so in his younger days, it was a close-run thing.

Anderson, who claimed his second PDC World Darts Championship crown when he beat Adrian Lewis at the start of last month, begins the defence of his Premier League title at Newcastle’s Metro Radio Arena tonight, and while it would be stretching it to claim he is returning home, his links to the Northumberland darts scene mean he retains a soft spot for the region.

Now based in Somerset, Anderson was born and raised in Musselburgh, East Lothian, but relocated to Eyemouth, just over the border in Berwickshire at the end of his teenage years.

He moved to be with his former wife, Rosemary, but it was another love that was to be nurtured during his time in the Borders, a sporting obsession that continues to drive him today.

“That was the time of my life when I really got into playing darts,” said Anderson, who missed last week’s opening round of Premier League matches because he was suffering from an illness. “I’d played a bit before, but it was when I was living in Eyemouth that I started to take the game seriously.

“I played in a lot of the county matches down Cramlington way, and remember playing in an event called the Newcastle Open about 20 years or so ago.

“They were good times, happy times. It was great craic with the bunch of lads I was playing with. I was playing a lot of pool and snooker back then too, but eventually, it was all about the darts.”

Even though he is a proud Scotsman, Anderson used to cross the border to line up on the oche, and even today, his name is still toasted in Berwick’s King’s Head pub, where he used to play in the local league.

Iain Stewart, who was the publican at the time, remembers Anderson turning up one night and wiping the floor with the opposition in a pub competition. The following evening, he returned to ask whether he could join the pub team.

“He asked my wife, Linda, if we were looking for players, but she was suspicious and told him we weren’t going to pay his expenses for coming from Eyemouth,” Stewart recalled. “I don’t know why he came, maybe he just liked the atmosphere of the pub, but he was made more than welcome.

“Even then, he was a standout player. He could hit hundreds for fun, but his problem was that when he got below 100, he couldn’t count. He got better when he got to the PDC.”

That Anderson improved is something of an understatement. Always regarded as a talented scorer when he was plying his trade on the rival BDO circuit, the 45-year-old has blossomed in the PDC and can now count himself as one of darts’ all-time greats.

Last month’s World Championship victory followed a similar success 12 months earlier, and added to the two Premier League titles that Anderson has also claimed. Phil Taylor’s achievements over the last two decades stand alone, but for all that Michael van Gerwen has been mopping up tournament wins over the last two years or so, it is Anderson’s triumphs in the biggest competitions of all that make him the worthiest successor to ‘the Power’.

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“It’s nice to have that second world title under my belt,” he said. “Winning the first one was massive, but people can write that down as a one-off or say it was a fluke or something like that. They can’t say that when you’ve won two. It’s a special thing to have done, and I can go to my box happy now when it’s time.

“To be honest, I was probably more nervous this time around. It seems a strange thing to say, but the first couple of matches of this year’s tournament, I was really, really nervous. Maybe it was because I was the holder, I don’t know, but the nerves were definitely there.

“But I grew into the tournament, and the way I played when I beat Jelle Klaasen, I don’t think anybody could have beaten me up there.

“The final probably wasn’t a classic match, although I’ve watched it back since and it actually wasn’t as bad as I thought. I was still hitting some big scores and putting away the finishes, and the most important thing was that I got the job done.”

But with two world titles to his name, isn’t there a danger that his motivation might wane? Having proved the doubters wrong twice, what continues to drive him on?

“The easy thing is to say I want to do the hat-trick, and that’s true,” he said. “I want three world titles and three Premier Leagues, then I really could think about calling it a day.

“But to be honest, the main motivation is trying to stay ahead of all of the rest of the guys who get better every single year. I play Michael van Gerwen (this evening), and when you play someone like that, you know that if you’re not quite on it, they’ll beat you.

“But it’s not just the very top guys – if you play against a bloke ranked number 64 nowadays, you know he’s going to be able to play. I work quite closely with some of the young guys coming through – there’s a couple of Geordie lads, Chris Dobey and Adam Hunt, you should really look out for – and they keep you motivated. The standard of the sport is improving all the time.”

The standard of tonight’s play should be sky high, with Anderson determined to make up for lost time after having to sit out the opening round of Premier League matches in Leeds.

“I felt really bad not being able to play, but I couldn’t get out of bed,” he said. “The old man flu completely wiped me out. I think I was feeling it the week before, when I played poorly in Milton Keynes, and I was all over the place for a week or so. I’m back fighting fit now though, so Michael had better watch out. I’ve got some catching up to do.”