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Wade to go
Wigan thrower Louis Blundell has a huge problem on his hands – he needs to come up with a nickname and entrance music ... fast!
Blundell continued his scintillating start to the season at the recent North West Players Championships at Robin Park Arena, hammering world number two James Wade 6-0 at the quarter-final stage before falling 6-5 to Colin Lloyd in a semi-final thriller.
His fabulous form has catapulted him up into the top 100 in the world, and he is also comfortably inside the top 32 Players Championships rankings, from which the invitations for the big competitions are drawn.
Blundell has already been told the points he has so far accrued in 2009 has 'all-but qualified' him for the Stan James World Match Play at Blackpool in July – and a potential first appearance in front of the TV cameras.
However, it also leaves him with some serious thinking to do.
"I've still not got my own theme tune or nickname," said Blundell, whose brother Lee was known as 'Lightning' during his pro' boxing career.
"I've not really thought about it yet – but I'll have to be picking one out soon.
"My ranking is still going up – I'm now 96 in the world, and I am 25 in the Players' Championships, which means I've been told I've all-but qualified for Blackpool. It would be my first televised tournament, and it would obviously be brilliant. That's what you want – that's why you play the game, to get a chance like that."
Blundell is at the top of his game at present, and picked up the biggest scalp of his career at Robin Park when he unceremoniously dumped Wade – one of the biggest names in the sport – out of his home-town event.
After seeing off Mark Walsh, Steve Maish, Peter Wright and Gary Mawson on his way to the last eight, Blundell whitewashed Wade before coming up just short against Lloyd, who nailed a 13-darter in the deciding leg to set up a final meeting with former world champion Dennis 'The Menace' Priestley.
Despite falling at the penultimate fence, Blundell was nevertheless delighted at reaching his first-ever PDC pro tour semi final – and a nice cheque for 1,500 – although he did have his wrists slapped by the organisers for the raucous nature of his local following!
"You're only allowed about three people in to support you, but people were ringing up their mates and telling them they were getting in, and at one stage I think they were just letting anyone walk in," he revealed.
"Every time I was playing there was about 30 people behind me, and they were all shouting so I got a warning because I was playing up to it a little bit.
"There are other games going on at the same time so you have got to respect that."
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Weather for Wigan
Friday 10 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -6 C to 3 C
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Wind direction: South east
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Sunny spells
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