Huntly’s John Henderson has hailed the PDC for their Home Tour innovation.
The Highlander played in the event at the weekend and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
After lockdown was enforced and sport as we know it was forced to shut down darts’ governing body came up with the idea of players competing against each other from the comfort of their own homes with matches streamed live for fans to watch online.
The 128 PDC tour card holders are all involved, with a different group of four players in action every night and the 32 group winners then progress to the next phase of the competition.
It’s been almost two months since the PDC was forced to start postponing events and Henderson believes it has been a positive experience for the players to have competitive darts return in the current format.
He said: “It’s been brilliant for players. When I was asked to play I jumped at the chance because it was an opportunity to play competitive darts.
“We can all practice and we’re all world champions on our own practice boards and can hit nine-darters.
“But once somebody says ‘game on’ the nerves kick in and it was completely different.
“It was good to have that because I’ve been practising but not knowing when we’ll return and it’s hard to motivate yourself.
“So the Home Tour has been great and give us some competitive darts.
“It keeps the fans interested as well and hopefully when things get back to normal the fans will come back to watch us.”
Henderson finished second in his group on legs difference.
He beat Krzysztof Kciuk 5-4 and Gary Blades 5-1, but a 5-3 loss to Damon Heta meant he missed out on winning his section.
Despite that, the 47-year-old was satisfied with how he had played.
He added: “In the first game I started well and went 2-0 up, then I went to sleep and Krzysztof was back to 2-2.
“I eventually won 5-4, but if I’d taken the third leg I probably would’ve won 5-1 or 5-2 and ultimately that was what knocked me out.
“I knew playing Damon it would be nip and tuck and I missed a lot of doubles and lost out.
“I’m disappointed not to go through, but overall I was quite happy with the way I played after quite a long time without competitive darts.
“I had to wear earphones to hear my opponents’ score and I’m not used to wearing them while throwing darts.
“You have to call your own score as well so there were a few things you had to get used to.
“There were elements of it that were strange but it was a good experience to play in it.”
