Daryl Gurney on his walk-on song and the best atmosphere in darts

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Daryl Gurney explains the story behind his walk-on and why a Premier League night in Belfast holds special memories

In the 10th of our series, former World Grand Prix winner Daryl Gurney tells us the story behind his walk-on song.

The World Matchplay starts on Saturday July 16, live on Sky Sports, and one man who will be looking to go well in Blackpool is Daryl Gurney.

Gurney has reached the semi-final stage at the Winter Gardens twice back in 2017 and 2019, narrowly being beaten 17-15 on both occasions and will be hoping get past that hurdle and go all the way in 2022.

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The 36-year-old appeared in front of the Sky Sports cameras last month when representing Northern Ireland in the World Cup of Darts and has shown flashes of finding his best form this year with a run to the semi-finals of the German Darts Championship back in March the highlight.

The former World Grand Prix winner has dropped to No 24 in the rankings but despite a lack of trophies in recent years, he is still more than capable of putting a run together and going deep in a major tournament.

Daryl Gurney celebrates winning the World Grand Prix in 2017

The walk-on is part of the show and in this series, we talk to the players to find out a little bit more about their entrances to the stage that get the party started in arenas all over the world.

Gurney's walk-on is one of the most popular with the fans wherever he goes and it is sure to be a hit at the World Matchplay as he takes to the stage to the tune of Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond, but 'SuperChin' admits that it was not his first choice.

He said: "I picked, I forget the name now, but Max Hopp's [Hey Baby by DJ Otzi], for me that is best walk-on ever. But then we weren't allowed it because at that stage Tony O'Shea was playing in the Grand Slam. Then my manager came across Sweet Caroline and said the Northern Ireland football team walk-on to it and the people in crowd do it, so we should do that. I said, well I can't get any worse, we'd done Madonna, so let's do it! Everybody joined in and in all honesty it just took off from there and everybody loved it.

"Everybody knows the words and that's what you want, the crowd want to get involved and they did and it's a great karaoke song."

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• Story of the Walk-On: Gary Anderson
• Story of the Walk-On: Adrian Lewis
• Story of the Walk-On: Michael Smith
• Story of the Walk-On: Nathan Aspinall
• Story of the Walk-On: Rob Cross

In the video, the former Players Championship Finals winner tells why a trial of one of Madonna's songs did not go down so well, why he thinks Rob Cross needs to improve his moves on stage and why one night in Belfast remains so special.

"I played there against Rob in the 2018 Premier League, even in the match it was an unbelievable atmosphere. I was playing against the world champion and he was the man to beat and to play in Belfast under a roof of 10,000 people with everyone singing Sweet Caroline, singing my name and then to actually beat him, it was a great night," he said.

It's not long to wait until darts is back on Sky Sports, the World Matchplay starts on Saturday, July 16 in Blackpool.