'I want to win because I'm skint': Richie Burnett's honest admission amid World Seniors return

Richie Burnett reached the semifinals of the World Seniors Darts Champion of Champions tournament, where he eventually went down against Richie Howson. But his comeback is not just about nostalgia or love of the game. 'The Prince of Wales' is completely grounded financially and is seizing as much as he can to make money.

The 58-year-old Welshman, world champion in 1995, showed again at the senior tournament why he was once among the world's top players. With wins over Simon Whitlock and John Henderson, he made his way to the last four, until Howson managed to halt his advance by beating him 6-4.

Yet afterwards it was not just about his performance on the board, but mostly about his reaction afterwards. Burnett admitted during an interview that he was not still on the stage purely for the love of the sport. "Yeah, I mean look, it's hard. You're going to have good legs and bad legs, but I'm digging in there and I want to win because I'm skint, you know. I need to win."

"Like I say you know, years go past and you should get better as the tournament goes on but I'm not saying nothing. I'll leave it at that please, thank you."

In recent years, Burnett has featured only sporadically on major stages. His most notable achievement was a quarterfinal finish at the 2023 UK Open, where he managed to beat then world number two Peter Wright, among others. In 2024, he won a tournament on the PDC Challenge Tour, but otherwise remained quiet.

All the more striking was his performance this weekend at the seniors tournament, where the old class reemerged. The Welshman has been active on the darts circuit for more than three decades.

In 1994 he won both the World Masters and the Dutch Open, and a year later crowned himself world champion with the BDO, after a memorable final against Raymond van Barneveld. In 1999, he switched to the PDC, where he remained active for the rest of his career.