Darts Star Cameron Menzies Reveals Why He Wasn’t Angry After James Wade Punched Him in the Ribs
There is a certain delicious irony to the moment Cameron Menzies got punched by James Wade at the Poland Darts Open on Saturday — and the man from Muirkirk was first to appreciate it.
Menzies, the player whose 2025 ended in disgrace after he repeatedly drove his fist into a drinks table at Alexandra Palace and ended up in hospital with his throwing hand badly damaged, beat Wade 6-0 in the second round in Kraków. And when his opponent gave him a friendly punch in the ribs afterwards — almost certainly a knowing acknowledgement of the irony — Menzies revealed he could only see the funny side.
Speaking after the victory, Menzies said it was the last thing he was going to get worked up about, given everything he has put himself through over the last two months. The man who has lost feeling in his fingers, who spent six weeks unable to pick up a dart, who considered quitting the sport entirely and who only narrowly talked himself out of withdrawing from this very tournament — he was hardly going to take issue with a tap in the ribs from a fellow professional.
The match itself was a statement performance from Menzies, who whitewashed Wade without reply in a remarkable turnaround in fortunes. It followed his 6-4 win over Ritchie Edhouse on Friday — a result Menzies described as the best he had ever played on the European Tour — and together the two victories represent the most meaningful two days of darts the Scotsman has had since his table-punching nightmare at Alexandra Palace in December.
The context of the Wade encounter was loaded with meaning beyond the scoreline. The two men have a long history on the oche: their head-to-head stood at 6-6 going into Saturday, forged through a number of memorable battles including a dramatic 10-9 last-leg thriller at the 2024 Grand Slam of Darts which still stands as one of the most emotionally charged nights of Menzies’ career. That night in Wolverhampton, Menzies fell to the floor in tears when he pinned double tops to win, his relief so overwhelming it overwhelmed everything else. He admitted afterwards that he struggles with his mindset, that his anxiety can spiral, and that he intended to speak to a sports psychologist. In the months since, he has followed through — the PDPA put him through eight hypnotherapy sessions with a specialist, and he has been working on the mental side of the game as seriously as the physical.
The physical side, of course, remains a work in progress. Menzies’ right hand still carries the scars of December’s incident, which began when he furiously punched the underside of the drinks table three times after losing 3-2 to debutant Charlie Manby in the first round of the World Championship. The crowd, already raucous, turned on him. Referee Kirk Bevins stepped in. Menzies walked off stage with blood streaming from his hand, and was taken to hospital. Surgery followed. Six to seven weeks of being unable to throw a dart followed that. Surgeons told him he was fortunate not to have severed nerves or tendons — he had “battered and bruised” them, in the clinical assessment that has since lodged itself in Menzies’ mind as his closest escape.
He has spoken with striking honesty about the mental scars running alongside the physical ones. He admitted ahead of this tournament that he “felt like wrapping it” on several occasions — that he came so close to withdrawing from Poland that even making the journey to Kraków felt like a small act of courage. He had hardly averaged over 75 in the weeks prior. Practice felt fine; matches felt impossible.
Friday’s win over Edhouse — nine 180s, a 95 average — cracked something open. And Saturday’s 6-0 demolition of Wade, a ten-time major champion and one of the most experienced players on the tour, confirmed that there is a real darts player still in there, underneath the self-doubt and the surgery and the stigma of being, as Menzies himself put it, “the table-puncher.”
So when Wade, in a moment of good-humoured sportsmanship, gave the man who beat him six-nil a playful dig in the ribs, Menzies took it in the spirit it was intended. The irony was too rich, and too obvious, for anything else. Here was a man who had done serious damage to himself with his own fists, taking a friendly punch from the man he had just defeated — and laughing about it.
He will need that sense of humour if he is to continue this run in Poland. The tournament continues on Sunday, and Menzies — who said before it began that making the last day would turn his whole season around — now has a real chance of doing exactly that.
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