Exclusive
Darts1 interview
with Michael Rosenauer

Do you have role models?

Yes, I always had some. It's changing all the time like my preferences in music, might be classic or rock. When the darts videos started, 83 or 84, it was John Lowe, a nice, quiet person, not many emotions. I never was a Bristow fan, I did see him play, he's a great technique, but I liked more Bob Anderson. I was really delighted by Phil Taylor in the beginning as well as Raymond van Barneveld, who really achieved a lot in a short time even though he changed darts and flights, which he played for years. He works a lot, doesn't rely in chance, he told me in our conversations, it's like I see it myself.

If you want to be good you have to work.

What do you do with unfair or disagreeable opponents?

When you are some kind of role model for the German darts sport you don't have many possibilities. Would I not be so well known, I might of course knock somebody on the head, but I can't allow me that, as I want the success. So I can only ignore those opponents or tell the tournament organisers. Sometimes I turn around on stage and swear. You have to do this from time to time, but careful.

What was the most helpful you ever were told?

The best tip I got around four years ago, somebody told me I should return to play darts. I had stopped for three years or three years and a half. I didn't throw a single dart in this time, didn't hang up a board, no automat, nothing. 2001 I had a three month course of training, then a training to become an IT-trader. I did know I couldn't do both. So I didn't throw a single dart, nowhere.

Then I did see darts on german sports television (DSF), Thomas "Shorty" Seyler did play in Purfleet. I got pins and needles in my fingers. An acquaintance living 100 km away, whom I meet once a year to play table tennis, told me, he wanted me to hang up a board, he wanted to see it next time he did visit me. We did hang it up together and then had to hunt more than an hour for the darts somewhere up in the loft and so I started again. That was the best tip I ever got.

>> The standard of the german darts players