The Observer - 'As you get older, you get more happy, more placid. The killer instinct just goes'

'As you get older, you get more happy, more placid. The killer instinct just goes': "Pressure. No wonder they drink, these dartsmen. How else do you steady the hand for such precision work? Of course brain surgeons manage it, but they don't tend to perform in front of a fired-up crowd or against a ruthless opponent. 'At the end of the day,' Deller tells me later, 'it's not about drink - it's about bottle.'

Competitive darts always comes down to who can handle the pressure, but before that it's a matter of who does the most practice. Deller used to practise seven hours a day, every day. 'I'd say, 'Right, it's 10 o'clock at night, I've got to hit five 180s before I go to bed'. Do silly things like that, just pushing.'"