"The focus is to succeed, to win matches - darts is about mentality."
Wednesday 9 October 2019 18:20, UK
Glen Durrant is increasingly at home on the PDC big stage, but it was a moment on the Pro Tour in Wigan earlier this year that he felt he had really arrived and it was a very different environment to the one he is relishing.
"There was a moment a couple of weeks ago on the Pro Tour," he tells The Darts Show podcast at the Citywest just outside Dublin.
"Against Simon Whitlock I turned around at one each, and there wasn't one person watching, and it was the best moment of the PDC so far.
"In the early time at the Q School the scrutiny was on me and there was a game against Barry Bates where three quarters of the people in there were watching my game. I didn't really appreciate the fact that Jamie Hughes, Mark McGeeney, nearly [BDO] champions, had one or two people watching and I had 200.
"I feel part of the family. I'm not walking in now with people saying 'there's the BDO champion, I wonder what he's up to? Is he any good?'
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It hasn't taken Durrant long to prove he is good enough. Not that he really needed to, he is a three-time BDO world champion, but there will always be snipers and Duzza is one to pay plenty of attention to the numbers and not just because as recently as December they were part of his working life.
"When I spoke to managers before I signed they were all about year two as they were invested in someone over years two and three," he says.
"To be in the top 32, if I'm 32nd seed that's a potential clash with Michael van Gerwen at Ally Pally, that's what dreams are made of - that's why I lift the BDO to come to the PDC.
"I am enjoying Pro Tour, European Tour and now I am in TV tournaments, I am not working any more so I want to work on my fitness.
"I'm just lapping up everything at the moment, the experience. To be the best, you've got to beat the best. When I won Lakeside, it was 'yeah but'. Now I'm up there with the best players in the world on the best stages in the world. It's pretty phenomenal."
Another Players Championship crown has followed along with qualification for nine of the year's 13 European Tour events and a World Matchplay semi-final in the summer.
Life on tour is starting to take shape and given Durrant's success he is having to find ways to occupy himself for tournaments that can keep you away from home for longer than he was previously used to
"I'm beginning to make my friends now, practice partners. I've really enjoyed practising with Justin Pipe and Joe Cullen. So it's just all falling into place very nicely.
"I called myself a miserable git but I mean that in a positive way as I am not high maintenance and I don't mind taking a chance to be in bed by 10pm.
"I enjoy working but at the moment I am watching quite a lot of TV. My wife would have been with me but she has to look after the cat, my best friend usually travels with me but he has got to work and my manager has other players to look after so I've got to be self-sufficient and for me to work out what works best for me."
Perhaps surprisingly it's the trials and tribulations of Newcastle builders and on London housing estates that occupy the Middlesbrough fan born and bred on Teesside as 'Auf Wiedersehen Pet,' 'Only Fools and Horses' and 'Top Boy' fill the hours before he hits the stage.
Up next for Durrant is Cross, a player he does not have to look back too far for in terms of a big stage showdown.
The pair reached the World Matchplay semi-finals in Blackpool earlier this year where Voltage eventually claimed a second major title in just his third year as a professional and Duzza was beaten by Michael Smith.
A smile comes across Durrant's face as he remembers the Winter Gardens and another tournament that he still pinches himself that he was a part of, but on Wednesday night there is business to attend to and Duzza's confidence is growing.
"I'm a huge fan of Rob Cross," he says. "He's a much bigger scorer than me. But I believe I'm the best in the world on double 16, that's my ethos, that's my positivity.
"If I can get that double 16 going and score better, then I'm in with a chance and I don't know if it suits Rob's game, the double off. He hadn't won a game until Monday because his game is around incredible scoring. I've got to utilise the fact that it's more of a leveller and get that double 16 going."
The double-to-start format has already seen five of the eight seeds tumble out after just three days, but Duzza has a plan.
"I went with my history of playing local leagues of going for double 16, and then going up to treble 20, and I won't be changing that, although the transition from double 16 to treble 20 was poor and something to work on."
His first round win over Krzysztof Ratajski means he will move into the world's top 32, just 10 months after gaining his Tour Card at Q-School and becoming a professional player. What has followed has been a whirlwind as he claimed his first final on his first weekend as a professional, and his first title the week after.
Cross and Durrant have burst onto the PDC scene in very different ways, but both have had immediate impacts. Cross' fairytale first year ended with a World Championship title, Durrant's tale is a longer one.
"The difference with me and Rob is the experience, his story is the absolute polar opposite to mine - I'm the guy that did the system, local league, super league, county, BDO, PDC," he says.
"Rob just came onto the scene and just smashed it within 10 months, it's just a phenomenal story, the Rob Cross one. But with the experience I've got, I believe I've played in some of the most high intensity games you can play in, and I'm still learning."
Whether he wins or loses in Wednesday's second round, Durrant has already made his mark, and perhaps more important than the one, two, 200 or 2000 watching on, he is proving it to himself.
"I get the opportunity to play the best, Rob Cross, Michael van Gerwen, Gary Anderson," he says. "It's a dream but 2019 has confirmed to me that I am a good player and I belong."
Coverage of the World Grand Prix continues on Wednesday with the conclusion of the second round on Sky Sports Action & Main Event from 7pm and stick with us through to Saturday's final from the Citywest Hotel
