Mansell and Rafferty set for ‘unique’ opening night

TONIGHT will provide a ‘unique’ start to the PDC World Championship at Alexandra Palace in London where two players, who grew up just a few doors apart [and a couple of decades], will compete on the main stage.

‘Clonoe Cyclone’ Mickey Mansell and Coalisland’s Nathan ‘The Natural’ Rafferty will get their campaigns underway on opening night at Ally Pally with the former taking on Ben Robb in the first match of the Championship at 7pm, while later the same evening the latter will make his debut at the tournament against Jermaine Wattermena.

“Myself and Nathan playing on the first night and on the same session is unique because the two of us were brought up four or five doors apart, there’s a bit of an age gap, but where Nathan was born and where I was brought up are only four doors apart,” Mansell explained.

“So the chances of that happening on a world stage and to end up on the same session is a good thing.”

Should the two Tyrone throwers secure victory tonight [Thursday], they will then face a couple of mouth-watering clashes, with Mansell taking on second seed and former champion, Peter Wright, while Development Tour Order of Merit winner Rafferty would tackle fourth seed Michael Smith.

Not that either is getting that carried away just yet.

“The first priority is to win the first game, it doesn’t matter who you are,” Mansell observed. “Then you can build on that, but it’s probably a bit more unique in that if I win against Robb then I have another game later that same night.

“But that is not a priority at the minute, it’s not in my thought process, I’ve prepared for a long night but not in playing Peter Wright. Playing Ben Robb is all that is in my head at the minute and it’s all I’m thinking about.

“Winning that first game is all I’m thinking about and then whatever course it runs after that.”

Mansell had to sit out the 2021 edition of the tournament after undergoing surgery on his throwing hand to remedy dupuytren’s contracture, which causes the skin to tighten, closing the fingers into the palm.

That decision meant he had to regain his Tour Card, which he did just 70 days after going under the knife and he has since booked his place at Ally Pally with a late season surge of positive results to leave him in good form ahead of the season’s main event.

“At the start of every year, everyone’s priority is to qualify for the World Championship, that’s the main goal,” he explained.

“I had to sit out last year but when I got the Tour Card, my main goal was to get back to the World Championship and the Players’ Championship.

“Towards the end of the year I needed a run of results to get to both and out of the last eight or nine tournaments I picked up ranking points to secure it, so under the pressure I finished the season well.”

2020 proved Mansell’s best appearance at the World Championship where he earned his only ever victory at Alexandra Palace, at the sixth attempt, beating Haupai Puha, and he’s hoping to produce that sort of performance against another Kiwi, Robb, tonight before hopefully causing a shock against Wright, who will be under pressure to progress.

“I’ve a different outlook on the whole thing [after that first win at the sixth attempt],” he said. “The record wasn’t very good, but you can’t change it unless you are there, you have to get back there to change it and I have done that.

“That has been the goal every year and the last year I went I was up against the New Zealand number one, the same as Ben Robb, so hopefully it’s a good omen and hopefully I can get the same result because I won three sets to nil.

“I won nine legs on the trot and then I played Ricky Evans after that and I won the first four legs, so I won about 14 legs in a row.

“I’m a lot more confident and I’ve prepared better and throughout the year my performances have been better and Wright is there if I win, which is a great opportunity because it has affected past champions before, that first game against someone who is a bit more relaxed after having already been up there and having won up there, so you have a bit of confidence and the pressure is on them.”