Grand Slam of Darts 2024: Stephen Bunting admits he’d love to be back in Premier League fold after great year and becoming fan favourite

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There will be a different winner this year as reigning champion Luke Humphries crashed out of the Grand Slam in Wolverhampton. We caught up with some players appearing at the tournament to comment on their year and where their game currently is.

Transcript

00:00That's a minute, yeah. I'm confident in playing well. I've been up and down all year, really.

00:05I haven't had the best of the year. Even probably the end of last year I wasn't the best, in

00:08my opinion, you know. But it's one of them. It's kind of, the form was in and out. I'm

00:13starting to find myself again for my own game. I think I'm still in my C game, really. But

00:19I know I can be much better in what I'm playing. I'm just kind of working on that and trying

00:22to improve myself. I'm trying to keep up the ladder.

00:27Does this tournament feel like a little bit of a bonus for you, obviously, coming through

00:31the qualifiers, sort of a last-minute route, I guess, into the tournament? Whatever you

00:36achieve here is a nice bit of a bonus and a good time to do it as well on the calendar.

00:41Yeah, definitely. I missed out on the players' championship finals because, again, obviously

00:45this year's been a bit up and down. So to get into this and qualify, I played really

00:48well on the day of the qualifiers, so I was happy to get in. It's one of them. Obviously,

00:53I'm here to try and win. If you're not here to win, then why are you here, really? But

00:57it's one of them. I obviously just want to try and do the best I can. It definitely is.

01:02It's a nice tournament to be playing in. So, definitely, definitely a good boost to the conference.

01:07Steven Bunting has had a year to remember. Being a fan favourite in the PDC, he touched

01:13on his year and the prospect of rejoining the Premier League line-up in 2025 after ten

01:20years away.

01:21Steven, just on the fans and the support that you've received, it's been massive over the

01:25last year or so. How have you taken to that? It's brilliant to see when you come out every

01:30time you play.

01:31Yeah, as soon as I walked on the stage tonight, you could hear them all singing, let's go

01:34Bunting, mental. It's very emotional, to be honest. I'm an emotional guy, so I had to

01:39check myself back and make sure that I didn't cry.

01:41You mentioned your high ranking, your form, fantastic. Have you thought yourself about

01:46the 2025 Premier League yet? Obviously, coming back to Liverpool would be amazing for you

01:51and the fans.

01:52I won the Masters, great. I'm in the top eight now in the world. I've just got to keep doing

01:56what I'm doing. I'm confident, I believe in my ability. I've got a lot more tournaments

02:00to go before they announce that. It's on people's lips, but it's down to me to keep doing what

02:06I'm doing. Obviously, the fan base is there, the walk-on's great, but I'm saying nothing

02:11until they say, you're in the Premier League. It'd be a dream to be back in there, but I'm

02:17not holding any thoughts until that happens.

02:22I don't know. If you look at my career on paper, I'm really up and down. I've beat all

02:28the top players, and I've lost to everybody, really. I'm one of them players where it's

02:35all on the day, really. I don't tend to look to the future too much or think about things

02:40like that. I just try and find that top form on the day.

02:45I think everybody always knows, in the back of their mind, everybody's capable, but not

02:49everybody actually proves it. To see some of the lower-ranked players doing really well

02:54and having big runs in Majors gives a boost to everybody, definitely.

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