Alan Soutar is bidding to emulate last year’s Ally Pally exploits after discovering his PDC World Darts Championship fate.
Soutar will face Australian debutant Mal Cuming in the first round, with the winner of that tie taking on world number 24 Daryl Gurney.
Soots will travel down for the opening round ties – to be scheduled between the 15th and 23rd of December – bidding to remain in the tournament beyond Christmas.
But should he see off Cuming and Gurney, he will face a re-run of last year’s Christmas dash.
He travelled from England capital and Scotland to do tackle blazes in his role as a firefighter at Dundee Kingsway East Fire Station.
And he’ll be on the same rota again this year.
“I’m due to work again over Christmas,” said Soutar. “So if I’m still in the draw I’ll be back up for shifts and straight back down to London.
“I’m very lucky that the Scottish Fire Service and Rescue Service have been so understanding in the build-up to this and have granted me special leave for the first game.”
Alan Soutar is darts TV star
WHAT AN INCREDIBLE LEG!
Six perfect darts from Fallon Sherrock and a stunning Bull-Bull-D16 finish from Alan Soutar as he moves into a 4-2 lead!
Scintillating 😍#GSOD | R1
📺 https://t.co/iVFvdbIrWJ pic.twitter.com/JppxLCQoLP— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) November 15, 2022
Soutar lit up Ally Pally on his debut last year as he saw off Diogo Portela, Mensur Suljovic and Jose de Sousa – world number 7 at the time – en-route to the last 16.
That saw him become an overnight household name across the UK, appearing live on Sky Sports New on Christmas Day.
And he has built on that success this year, currently sitting at 36th in the world after a staggering rise of 92 spots in his 21 months as professional.
Soutar has performed admirably in live TV events.
He reached the quarter-final of the UK Open in his debut season.
Soots then made it to the last 16 of Ally Pally and followed that up by reaching the last eight of the Grand Slam of Darts last month.
He beat current world number 7 en-route to that Wolverhampton glory run, halted by eventual finalist Nathan Aspinall.
Soutar lost to Gurney in the Players Championship Finals last year and will be seeking revenge.
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