Darts Still in a Great Place According to Colin 'Jaws' Lloyd
With lockdown conditions easing and the first televised major behind us we caught up with Colin Lloyd, a forthright character in the game, who gave us his no-holds barred thoughts on where darts is right now and the future we have to look forward to.
We asked Colin Lloyd what he'd reflected on over the last 20 weeks, especially as Colin has been shielding during lockdown.
Colin said "It's been a really odd time for me, but strangely for the first time in 20 years it's allowed me to take a far closer look at my health and how our modern busy lives maybe need some tweaking, so that we get the best out of each other for both our health and families"
Colin went on to say "Amazingly I’ve lost 2 stone simply by walking, cycling and bit of boot camp (that kills me!) but overall, I feel so much better being lighter on my feet again and will definitely try to keep this as part of my daily life"
Colin has also used lockdown to keep his arm ticking over and said "I've been practicing most days but it's not with any motivation for a specific exhibition or appearance, but basically because i love throwing darts and this new freedom has been brilliant"
Whilst Colin's successes as World no.1 and major winner were all achieved under the PDC system, Colin was very quick to add his thoughts upon seeing the changes that are evident in grass root darts.
"I'm always in and around social media and have loads of darts mates who still play super league and county, so I'm always being asked my thoughts on this, and basically it seems that over 40 years good work has been undone in a very short space of time.
“Some of my happiest times in darts were playing at the county youth level and it’s essential we have the pathway for players to feed into the professional game.”
Colin went on to say "However, we're seeing lots of new ideas and momentum gathering in different places, none more so than with Junior Darts and Steve Brown's latest MAD initiative that I really hope works out.”
“There is no question that darts is in a totally different place to what it was even 5 years ago so I'm very optimistic that darts will flourish again once this Covid period ends as the game evolves."