Nathan Aspinall had a year to forget in 2024.
The 2023 World Matchplay champion was comfortably inside the top 8 in the PDC Order of Merit at the beginning of the 2024 season.
He was seemingly looking to push on from several finals appearances in major tournaments throughout 2022-2023.
A second round exit at the 2024 World Darts Championship was a sign of the season to come though for The Asp…
He would have mostly early exits in major tournaments and this was combined with missing 3-4 months of the year as he rehabbed an elbow injury caused by repetitive strain.
He also mentioned a number of other minor injuries he’s had to deal with throughout the year.
Fortunately, he’s started 2025 on a positive note with a quarter-final finish at the World Championship and a recall to the Premier League – something many felt he wouldn’t get based on the last twelve months.
The Asp will need a good year in 2025 and while he feels the competition is as strong as ever, he’s recently revealed that players in the PDC no longer have the ‘fear factor’ giving a simple reason why.
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Nathan Aspinall on Why Players No Longer Have the Fear Factor in Darts
Following his confirmed place in the 2025 Premier League, Aspinall was interviewed on talkSPORT Darts and was asked if he’d ever known darts to be so competitive as it is now.
He said:
“No, never.
“We have the Players Championship events which are behind closed doors, only die hard fans really watch that and I think there was something like the first 20 events, there were different winners.
“I just think there’s strength and depth, I think the lower ranked players see the players at the top and think, we’re not that far behind.
“That pushes them to practise more and the fear factor is lost now.
“When you used to step on stage against (Michael) van Gerwen or Phil Taylor, the lower ranked players used to be defeated before they’d even played whereas now, you play each other so many times that no one is bothered.”
2024 was the year of the underdog.
Luke Littler went to the World Championship finals aged just 16. Mike De Decker and Ritchie Edhoue won major tournaments while being ranked outside the top 32, and on the ProTour, there were 21 different winners in 30 Players Championship events!
Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen are the two players famous for having the fear factor and essentially having a marginal edge going into any match as a result.
Luke Humphries had a sensational 12-month run from mid 2023 – 2024 and looked as though he could become a dominant player that could get the fear factor but Ritchie Edhouse echoed what Nathan Aspinall just said.
On route to winning the European Championship while being ranked outside the top 32, Edhouse said players respected and acknowledged Humphries as the dominant player to beat currently, but they didn’t fear him.
That comment makes a lot of sense when combined with what Aspinall is saying about the frequency that players face each other now.
It might be a bandwagon opinion but with what Luke Littler is doing at his age, it’s very possible that he could be someone that brings the fear factor back to darts 👀
Though that could take a few years yet to materialise (if it ever does).
See Aspinall’s full interview below:
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