By Ryan Segal
Tom Bissell has said he’s “Really Enjoying” his first year on the professional tour ahead of the Hungarian Darts Trophy.
‘Bizzness’ has taken to the circuit like a duck to water, no mean feat considering his complete lack of PDC experience prior to gaining his tour card.
He heads to Budapest for his second European Tour event of the season – and feels his debut appearance will stand him in good stead this weekend:
“I think I took a lot away from the first one.
It was like seeing the other side of the PDC, being on the stage experiencing that.
It was great being around some of the top players and seeing how it all works and stuff.
So, I think it helps a lot coming to this – I sort of know what’s in hand.”
He comes into this weekend just £2.5k outside the qualifying spots for the World Championship, and admits the thought of playing at Alexandra Palace is a tantalising one:
“I’ve been keeping an eye on it.
At the start of the year, I was just planning to see how it was going to pan out – To see if we could get some wins on the board.
But obviously now it’s come to crunch time, I’m looking at a bit more and looking at it in a way that – I really want to be there now.
Obviously if I can take that sort of money on the rankings into next year, it’s a good head start.
But to play at Ally Pally, that would be amazing.”
That would be the cherry on top of the first season Bissell cake, with the Black Country thrower honest in his assessment of his debut campaign:
“I spoke with my manager a couple of times, and we sort of chatted about how we think it’s gone.
We’ve got goals and places we hope to be at the end of the two years.
But, for this year, he says ‘As a rookie, you’ve done really well.’
I’ve taken some decent scalps, and I think that’s given me confidence going on through the year.
Obviously there’s been a few moments where you think, ‘Oh, it’s not working at the moment’, but you get back on the practice board and it starts to work again.
I’ve had to learn a lot quickly, not doing any Challenge Tours or anything like that.
I’m in the deep end, but I’m really enjoying it.
It’s definitely been a learning curve, though.”
Bizzness kicks off his campaign against Dirk van Duijvenbode in the last game of Friday’s afternoon session, at approximately 15:30 BST.