Ryan Searle had a convincing first round win at the European Championship last night beating Raymond van Barneveld 6-2. Searle is yet to win a PDC Major title despite his ability and has not admitted he ‘lacks the drive’ to win major titles…
Ryan Searle progressed through to the second round of the Machineseeker European Championship in Dortmund yesterday evening with an emphatic 6-2 win over Raymond van Barneveld.
Searle was racing towards a whitewash after going 5-0, only for RVB to hit a 10 dart leg in the sixth set to prevent it. The comeback wouldn’t last long though as Searle would close out the match 6-2 registering a 101.58 average.
Searle has been impressive on the Euro Tour coming into this tournament.
Several quarter-final finishes, a semi-final placing and a runner-up place at last month’s Swiss Darts Trophy will see him as a serious contender this weekend.
See also – “I bottled it” – Ryan Searle misses SEVEN match darts in Swiss Dart Trophy final loss
His post-game interview comments might say otherwise though as Searle himself admits he doesn’t really have the drive to push to win a major title… 🤨
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Ryan Searle Admits He Lacks the Drive to Win Major Titles
When Ryan Searle was asked by an interviewer from Online Darts about his long term ambition in the sport, his response was one that might surprise many.
He replied:
“It kind of changes as the months go on.
“I don’t know, I don’t really have that drive to be in the Premier League and pick up major titles and stuff like that. I don’t really like the limelight to be honest.
“I just sort of like going along in the background and sort of nicking a penny here and there. Lucky enough in the PDC you don’t have to be winning major titles to earn yourself a decent living.
“Obviously it would be nice to win a major at some point. I feel like when I play my game I’m a top 10 player and I really believe that but we’ll just see how it goes, I don’t really take it too serious to be honest.”
See the full interview below:
Based on his performances this year, we don’t think Searle is just playing it down to take some pressure off himself on the big stage either.
He’s currently 4th on the ProTour Order of Merit trailing only Dave Chisnall, Luke Littler and Luke Humphries, with just two Players Championship events still to come.
He’s also sitting 8th on the European Tour Order of Merit so across the two, he’s earned £207,750 so far this year.
That’s around half of his 24-month earnings in the overall PDC Order of Merit, with this win seeing him move into the top 16 once the rankings update after the European Championship finishes this weekend.
If he performs well away from the main stage and earns a very good living from it then it is very believable that Searle is happy to live a comfortable life playing darts for a living without pressuring himself to push for a major title.
This will be disappointing to hear for Searle fans as many believe he has the ability to win a major but this might explain why it’s just never clicked for him.
Serial winners like Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen have often spoken about the relentless drive they have to win and that is not something every player can have.
We even made an article a month ago listing Searle as a darts player we think could win a major in the near future.
We still stand by it but his comments aren’t exactly filling us with confidence 🤦
The week after writing it Chizzy came out and said he won’t stop playing until he wins a major!
In the interview he doesn’t downplay his ability though and says he has the ability to win a major even if it’s not a burning desire for him.
Let’s see how he gets on this weekend as he will play Luke Woodhouse next in the second round.
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