Cameron Menzies Reveals What James Wade Told Him That He ‘100% Meant’ After 6-0 Win
Before Cameron Menzies beat James Wade 6-0 in Kraków on Saturday, the two men had already shared a moment that mattered far more than any scoreline — and it happened at an exhibition in Twickenham, weeks before either of them set foot in Poland.
Menzies, who averaged 99 in his comprehensive second-round victory over ‘The Machine’, revealed in his post-match interview that it was Wade who had been one of the first people in darts to check in on him in a way that felt genuine — not performative — following his infamous table-punching meltdown at Alexandra Palace in December.
“We just spoke because I’d done an exhibition in Twickenham with James,” Menzies told reporters via Oche180. “And he was the first darts player that actually asked me, ‘How do you feel?’ He said, ‘I don’t want your fake answers. How do you feel?'”
What followed, by Menzies’ account, was a conversation that cut through the noise of professional sport and landed somewhere more honest. Wade, who has spoken publicly about his own mental health battles over the years — including bipolar disorder, which he has discussed with considerable openness — approached the moment with an empathy that Menzies said he recognised immediately as the real thing.
“Obviously — and hopefully he doesn’t mind me saying this — he has his own issues, and he knows, more than anybody else, what life can do,” Menzies said. “He gave me a proper look in the eyes and asked me the question, ‘Mate, are you okay?'”
For Menzies, the manner of the enquiry was what separated it from the dozens of similar questions he had presumably fielded in the weeks since Ally Pally. “And I said to him, ‘You’re the first person to have genuinely meant it’. Not just the ‘Are you okay’ questions. He genuinely spoke to me, shook my hand, looked straight in my eyes, and went, ‘Is everything okay?’ So I told him.”
It is that exchange — and the weight he attached to it — that explains why Menzies went to embrace Wade after the final double landed in Poland on Saturday. The gesture did not quite land as planned.
“I have a lot of respect for James,” Menzies said, smiling. “I tried to give him a cuddle after the win in Poland, and he just punched me in the ribs. He doesn’t like cuddles!”
The timing of the rib-punch, given everything Menzies has been through with his hands, and given his own history of throwing punches in moments of high emotion, was not lost on those watching. Wade apparently landed his blow in good humour, and Menzies received it the same way.
The affection in Menzies’ words when he spoke about his opponent was genuine throughout. “He’s a great darts player, and I do think he’s unlucky not to be in the Premier League,” he said. “That will make him a better player again, because there’s no denying that his legacy is there for a reason.”
Wade, who reached the finals of both the UK Open and the Grand Slam in 2025, has started the current season in fine form — he won the very first Players Championship event of 2026 — but was not among the eight names selected for this year’s Premier League, a decision that many in darts felt was harsh on a ten-time major champion who remains among the most formidable players in the world on his day. Saturday’s 6-0 result tells a version of the story, though it came against a Menzies who is rapidly finding his best form at a venue where he has previously thrived.
For Menzies, who enters Sunday’s round of 16 against Wessel Nijman having beaten both Ritchie Edhouse and Wade without dropping more than four legs across two matches, the weekend in Kraków has been as much about recovery as competition. His hands are still damaged, his confidence was still fragile walking into Poland, and he has spoken with candour all weekend about how close he came to not making the trip at all. That he did, and that he has played the way he has, owes something to a darts player who stopped him in a Twickenham venue, looked him in the eye, and meant it.
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