Nathan Aspinall ‘not enjoying’ darts in worrying admission as he says ‘I just want to be at home with my family’

Nathan Aspinall has made a candid and concerning admission about his current state of mind, confessing that he is not enjoying darts at the moment and would rather be at home with his family than travelling the European Tour circuit.

The 34-year-old Stockport ace, who is famed for feeding off crowd energy and wearing his heart on his sleeve, spoke with rare openness to DartsNews after beating Ricardo Pietreczko 6-5 in the second round of the German Darts Grand Prix in Munich this weekend — his first significant result after a difficult run of form.

“I’m working on something behind the scenes to try and get myself fired up,” he explained. “I’m a bit flat at the moment. I’m very flat when I’m playing. I’m not enjoying playing darts at the moment. I don’t want to travel — I just want to be at home with my family at the moment. So I’m trying to find some motivation, and a lot of that comes from enjoying myself on stage.”

It is a striking admission from a player who has built much of his success on passion and emotional engagement at the oche. Aspinall revealed he is actively trying to rediscover the spark that once made him a standout performer, and that his Munich opponent helped him find a glimmer of it. “When I used to give it a little bit of something, that used to get me pumped up and I used to enjoy that. That’s what I tried to do today. I don’t want to force it — I want it to be natural. Ricardo was a perfect opponent because he likes to give it a little bit on stage, and that obviously fired me up. He played well, he battled — kind of like playing myself, really.”

The admission comes on the back of a difficult week. “Obviously, after the disappointment in Belgium, I was very, very upset with my game, and I didn’t play very well in the Players Championship event midweek,” he said.

Travel logistics are also grinding him down. British players have faced significant disruption at European airports since Brexit, and Aspinall made clear it is becoming a real issue for him. “Whether it’s passports or lost luggage — my luggage came at two o’clock this afternoon. That’s not the PDC or darts’ fault, it’s Brexit and airports. There’s nothing anyone can do.”

His solution for now is to become more selective about which events he enters. “I think the only thing is I probably won’t play as many events. If I have a couple of weeks where it’s been a nightmare, I’ll just pull out if I want to, because I can’t be bothered. If I’m playing really well, I’ll sit in an airport for three hours — I’m not bothered. If I’m playing rubbish, I don’t want to do it.” He confirmed he has already factored this into his plans, and will be in Sindelfingen but not Graz in the coming weeks.

Aspinall’s comments echo similar sentiments expressed by Luke Humphries last year, when ‘Cool Hand’ admitted playing darts had begun to feel like a “chore.” That disclosure drew criticism from some fans at the time, but it speaks to a broader issue in a sport whose schedule has expanded considerably in recent years.

Despite the low ebb, the win in Munich felt like more than just a result — a sign that the fire is still there, even if it sometimes needs to be rekindled. “Yeah, great win, very happy,” Aspinall said. “It was a good game of darts… it was a big win.”