Glen Durrant heads into his third BDO World Championship as the number one seed and the hot favourite to lift the title at Lakeside next weekend, yet his future plans for after the tournament finishes are still to be decided.
The 45-year-old Middlesbrough thrower lost a nail-biting semi-final 6-5 to Martin Adams at the Lakeside last year, and just days after the defeat admitted he had started to consider a switch to the PDC in 2016.
Durrant heads into what could possibly be his last Lakeside in red-hot form, having won both the Winmau World Masters and the Finder Darts Masters in the final months of 2015.
But Duzza admits his attention right now is fixed on getting his name on the World Championship trophy and completing a historic treble of major trophies in the space of three months.
“The only thing on my mind now is getting some practice in,” he said. “I don’t want to think about negotiating contracts and talking about what I’m doing next.
“I’m not trying to hide anything from anyone. I’ve already told my managers, my sponsors and my family that I’ll make the decision when Lakeside finishes for me.
“There’s options to go into the PDC, which is easy enough saying, but you’ve got to get through Q School. That’s 500 people battling on the floor for tour cards.
“There’s an offer on the table to stay in the BDO as well. With the new guys coming into the BDO there’s an attractive proposition there. I genuinely change my mind each day, but it’s the last thing on my mind at the moment.
“I can pretty much tell you now if I lose first round I’ll be going over to the PDC. If I win Lakeside I’ll honour the trophy and stay with the BDO. That’s pretty much the only definites I can give people.”
Durrant begins his latest bid for a first world title tonight, when he takes on Welsh debutant Dean Reynolds in front of the BT Sport cameras.
Currently ranked number 19 in the BDO rankings, Reynolds has had success on the BDO circuit, as well as the PDC’s Development Tour in 2015.
A deciding leg victory over Ryan de Vreede saw him claim his first BDO title, the French Open, in August, with the Welshman also reaching the finals of the Belgium Open and England Masters.
Reynolds edged past Durrant 5-3 on his way to getting to the final of the England Masters, but Duzza gained revenge with a 4-1 victory when the two met in the quarter-finals of the British Classic.
“He was one of the players that nobody wanted in the last 32,” Durrant admitted. “He joined the circuit late and I think he’s ended up qualifying 18th in the rankings, so it just goes to show you how good of a player he is.
“The thing I’ve got over Dean is that he’s not played on that stage yet. The way to explain that stage at the Lakeside is: you can be fantastic on the floor and it’s like playing in my local club at the Riverside, and then trying to go and play at Wembley.
“It’s a different game and when I first played at the Lakeside after two sets I went off and asked my friend: ‘what’s the score? Am I winning?’ That’s what the Lakeside stage can do to you.
“He seems a very relaxed young lad and it might not faze him. It could be the making of him or he could do what I did and just think ‘what the hell has just happened?’
“I understand I’m the favourite and that people see it as being in my hands. But I realise I’ve got a very difficult first match and that’s all I’m concentrating on.”
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