I went from an unemployed factory worker to beating Van Gerwen, playing guitar in a church band transformed my life
GOLDEN ARROW Andrew Gilding says playing the guitar in a church band kick-started his darts career and stopped him becoming a recluse.
Late on Sunday night, the 52-year-old Ipswich-born thrower shocked three-time world champion Michael van Gerwen by winning the £110,000 UK Open at Butlin’s Minehead.
It marks an incredible journey that involved once working in a butchers, chicken factory and abattoir to signing-on due to unemployment.
There was a time when the painfully-shy Suffolk-based Gilding stopped socialising and going down to the pub to see friends.
Had it not been for some gospel music, then the victory over the Dutchman at the weekend would have never happened.
Gilding, who is nicknamed Goldfinger, told SunSport: “It was very briefly but I had a couple of factory jobs in the early to mid-1990s. Always jobs where it was cold.
“Then I was unemployed for a long while and I actually became quite reclusive in my early 30s.
“I had some mental health problems and I started to spend all my time indoors.
“It was only when I played guitar for a church band that I started getting out more and from that I joined a local pub darts team.
“Joining the church band got me mixing with people. From there, I was told to join a super league team. I suppose that’s where it all started.
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“I’ve never been much of an outgoing person, I have always been painfully shy. I dropped out of school early before getting my results.
“I went back to college but even then I was very shy and didn’t mix with people.
“But now I have gone from literally being washed up and miserable to the top of the world. What a turnaround. It’s unbelievable.”
Gilding has been bombarded by 1,000 messages since lifting his first TV major and the result has seen him move up to 25th position in the world rankings.
The spin-offs from that sensational Somerset success include an appearance at the Grand Slam of Darts in Wolverhampton in November.
And his ranking will only continue to rise this year as he barely has any prize money to defend.
The UK Open cash will go towards buying a new dream house as he has lived in the same one-bedroom council flat for 30 years.
On Thursday he will take the trophy over to his dad Peter, who has been moved to a residential home after he fell and broke his ankle.
Gilding, whose walk-on music is Spandau Ballet’s classic ‘Gold’, said: “I can imagine there is going to be a lot of pressure in Barnsley next week for the floor tournament.
“Everyone is going to come up and say well done and I will try and keep my head shrunk.
“I expect to lose because I will be maybe over-confident. I will try not to be but we’ll see.
“When I got to the 2022 Belgian Open final, I said I would be happy to be a second-placed man who is well respected in the game. Rather than a winner everyone hates.
“I never really had any money in my life. Never. On Saturday night, I thought, ‘wow, I’ve won £30,000 for getting into the semi-finals’.
“When I had a little bit of success about eight years ago I started to get a little bit lazy after that. I started to show up about an hour later to the competitions.
“I mustn’t do that this time. I have got to keep working hard.
“I don’t really want to be a superstar. Being able to earn a living doing something that you don’t hate is great. That’s the dream. And I’m living the dream.”