Featured Image Credit: Sky Sports & Getty
Topics: Luke Littler, Darts
Josh Lawless
Nathan Aspinall has revealed the darts ritual he is keeping despite his wife's wishes.
'The Asp' has reached the quarter-finals of the World Darts Championship and will take on favourite Luke Littler after he got past Ryan Joyce in an enthralling contest on Monday night.
Aspinall is in the quarters for the first since 2020 after beating Ricardo Pietreczko 4-0 and is vying to reach the semi-finals for a third time after back-to-back appearances against Michael Smith and Michael van Gerwen.
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The 33-year-old, a former promising footballer who was scouted by Manchester United and played for Stockport County's academy, is No.12 in the world and has two majors to his name after a 2019 win in the UK Open and victory in the World Matchplay tournament final in 2023.
This time around, Aspinall has been sporting a new beard - even though other half Kirsty is not a fan. But the Stockport arrow-thrower has pledged to keep the new look until he scores another huge tournament victory.
"Kirsty is raging about it, but I’m keeping it until I’ve won another major,” Aspinall said, as per talkSPORT.
“I won’t let it grow until I look like Santa Claus, and I’ll trim it if I have to. But I started growing the beard since before the Players Championship finals at Minehead and it stays until I’ve won big again.”
The crazy crowd at Alexandra Palace has been experienced by Aspinall many times before, though he is expecting it to go up a notch for the latter stages of the competition.
However, he believes it won't prove tricky given some of the other venues he's performed at.
“It will be electric in there, more of a football vibe than darts,” he added.
“But once you have played Michael van Gerwen in Rotterdam or Gezzy (Gerwyn Price) in Cardiff on a Premier League night, everything else is a piece of cake.”
The contest between Aspinall and Littler takes place on New Year's Day at the very end of the evening session, following on from Peter Wright and Stephen Bunting's meeting.
There is extra intrigue in the upcoming battle on the oche as Littler and Aspinall are friends as well as being part of the same stable.
Matthew Edgar, who appeared in the competition on three occasions, has been providing insight into what goes on at the World Championship - recently revealing that players must agree to four contract clauses.
"You are also needed to do media after the game. If you're someone of interest, let's say Luke Littler for example if he goes out - the chances are with all the media outlets there - they are still going to want to interview him.
"He is entitled to a 2-minute cooling off period before he goes into those interviews but he would still be contractually obliged to go into interviews.
"Before the game, there is also a window there. It's around about 90 minutes, depending on what the event is, where they cannot disturb you - that is your time where you can just get on with what you need to do.
"The best thing is to make sure you've got preparation right and you allow plenty of time for the media."