Alex Spellman returns to the stage at the US Darts Masters in New York this weekend, and he has a message for the doubters. After a year away, the American is back in the line-up for the prestigious World Series event at Madison Square Garden and is eagerly looking forward to his new opportunity. But for Spellman, it is not just about his own performances. Having witnessed the development of North American darts firsthand, he believes that players from the United States and Canada continue to be consistently underestimated.
"Obviously a lot of people will be familiar with the CDC players, but there are so many more players who don't play on the CDC circuit," said Spellman to Darts World. "Chris Lim is always one that comes to mind. He lives in California, so it's not always viable for him to make these trips. We're so much better than people give us credit for. If somebody has only seen me play once, maybe in one of my Grand Slam matches, they're probably wondering what I'm doing here. But there are other matches, whether they're publicised or not, where if people saw them they'd understand."
Spellman pointed to results against top players as evidence. "Michael Smith, if I'm not mistaken, has lost more matches than he's won in this building. Rob Cross lost here last year. Stephen Bunting lost here last year, and it's not like Bunting was playing badly. If I remember correctly, the World Series events were his best tournaments. Jeff Smith made the final. We've done just fine against the best players in the world. Now imagine taking the eight guys we have here, adding the rest of the CDC players and the strong non-CDC players, and matching us up against the bottom half of the top 128. We'd do just fine."
Spellman and Adam Sevada were both invited to the glitz-and-glamour Media Day to take an interview alongside all the big names, and when asked if that is a barometer of how far they've come, he believes it is. "They're seeing the value we have, because we need a little bit more exposure over there. Like I said, if people only see me when I'm playing terribly, then they're going to have that opinion of me, and that's completely warranted. The problem is we don't get many opportunities. We get one opportunity. Even if you're a great player, it takes time. Leonard Gates hasn't necessarily had the most success on stage either, but he's clearly one of our best players."
Spellman also spoke about his medication issues, revealing he stopped taking medication in January to prepare for this weekend. "As strange as it sounds, I didn't want to feel great all the time. I almost wanted to feel a little worse more often because I felt it would prepare me better. It's not been a great stretch, but this kind of thing keeps me distracted." He added that not taking the medication has brought back his competitive fire. "What I didn't realise with some of the medication I was taking was how much it affected my mentality. I kept telling people that the anger and the fire just weren't there. If I had a bad day, I'd be annoyed for a moment and then I'd just think, 'It's fine, I'll do better next time.' Ever since I stopped taking those medications, I've got some of that fire back. Now when I lose, I want to punch the couch."
