Nick Kenny’s World Cup of Darts debut for Wales alongside Jonny Clayton had some very positive spells, but in the end culminated with a whimper. Following their 8-7 defeat to eventual champions England in the quarter-final in Frankfurt, Matthew Edgar felt that Kenny was suffering a bit from ‘imposter syndrome.’
Kenny was a late replacement for Gerwyn Price. ‘The iceman’ is one of the world’s best and has won the World Cup twice with Clayton, who make a formidable team. They were aiming to go one better than last year following defeat against Northern Ireland in the final, but this time around they could not make it that far. Because of their ranking, Wales had to start in the group phase. With Kenny ranked outside the top 60 in the PDC Order of Merit come the tournament, this gave him two extra matches to compete in. They safely navigated the opening stages before defeating the USA 8-5 in the last-16. They pushed England all the way in a deciding leg. The 33-year-old sat on 84 for the match. He found the 20 segment before missing the 14’s entirely, blowing any chance of getting a match dart.
Edgar, a former professional darter, admitted that stepping up to the task of being Price’s replacement got to Kenny along with all the opinions and views of darts fans peering in on the situation. “I think he was affected by opinions. I honestly do,” Edgar said on the Love the Darts Podcast. “We talk about the psychology of the game, and we look at Nick Kenny and the interviews he gave. All he wanted to do was play down the fact. He was like: ‘Well, I am here because Gezzy [Price] has pulled out. I am not as good as Gezzy.’ Everything he was saying was like he was voicing the opinions of the people who had been sending him messages.”
This was a tactic to relieve the pressure off him and to allow him to focus on his darts. It was a whole new scenery for Kenny. While he had played on big stages before like at Ally Pally, the pressure of representing your nation is a hugely prestigious significant position to be in. Expectations are high, and instead of trying to dampen them like he did, Edgar believed he should have relished the chance and spoken up about how he was the one to lead Wales to glory. “For me, it was like you are trying to say it before they do,” he commented. “Or you are trying to say it to defuse the situation a little bit, rather than go up there and say: ‘I am here by right.’ ’I am the next person in line,’ and then go up there and be Nick Kenny. I feel like maybe that is where the nerves came from early on. It was almost like he was trying to say: ‘I am suffering a little bit from imposter syndrome,’ without really saying it. I would rather him go up there and be brash.”
