Peter Wright has vowed to help Cameron Menzies deal with the horrible side of darts.
The Ayrshire ace suffered another Ally Pally nightmare on Monday after he lost to Charlie Manby and erupted in fury by losing control of his emotions.
Menzies put his palm on a firework and then punched his on-stage water table three times bursting open his bleeding hand to land him in hospital as well as in hot water with the Darts Regulation Authority for his act of misbehaviour.
The 36-year-old was clearly in distress as he departed the scene to crowd boos and PDC chiefs have vowed to offer him support in the wake of the shock incident at the Paddy Power World Championship.
Wright says he’ll also be there for his countryman if needed and explained: “I haven’t got Cammy’s number, but yeah, I’d help him at anytime if need be. But everyone’s their own person, so you can’t explain and say to them this is how I deal with it. Maybe you need to deal with it a different way yourself.
“He’s still learning, he’s still young. He probably thought like I did. To go out there and play fantastic and blitz them off the board, but it doesn’t happen sometimes. It’s strange, it’s a horrible game.
“And, especially when you’re at the Ally Pally where it’s life-changing money, well not life-changing money, but it’s to get you up the rankings, fly you up the rankings. You’ve got to do so many tournaments, win so many tournaments on the floor to get that same sort of money, so it’s difficult.
“It’s something you’ve got to learn. Maybe he’s like a [Raymond van] Barneveld. When he’s on, unstoppable. When Barney was on, he was unstoppable and I see that in Cammy. And Barney told me years ago, you’ve got to be more horrible, nasty. I said, that’s not me and maybe that’s something Cammy’s got to bring into his game because I think he’s more a focused player than I am.
“I like going up, having a laugh, joke. If I play well, I play well, thank you very much. Now, as before, I took it serious. Now, obviously, he’s taking it serious. So he needs to either take the kill them with kindness or be the bad loser. Nothing wrong in the bad loser thing, it’s doing it in the right place at the right time. Out the way. Beat yourself up out of the way of public.”
Pressure is all round darts and will only grow the higher Menzies can go up the ladder as he’s tipped to be Gary Anderson’s next World Cup partner.
Wright added: “He should have been in my shoes two years ago in the World Cup. It’s a stubborn old git here who wanted to win another one for Scotland and I’m disappointed that in the last two years I’ve played absolutely rubbish.”
Meanwhile, Wayne Mardle has also urged Menzies to learn from his meltdown and get the right support as he said: “The frustration boiled over, the anger, the anguish in losing. But you’ve got to control that.
“That’s what conducting yourself the right way is all about. And he didn’t, he let himself down. I’m sure he’ll be punished accordingly by the Darts Regulation Authority. But I hope the Professional Darts Players Association are there for him.
“You can’t do that anywhere, let alone on the biggest stage of all. I hope he can correct his behaviour and move forward.”
