Luke Littler’s World Championship semi-final opponent Ryan Searle has opened on the rare incurable eye condition he suffers from.
Searle, 38, who worked as a window cleaner before pursuing darts professionally, has been one of the stories of the tournament at Ally Pally, reaching the final four despite being ranked as world No 20.
Searle, nicknamed ‘Heavy Metal’, has dropped just two sets, the fewest of any player and he has surpassed his previous best record of reaching the fourth round in 2019, 2021 and 2022.
But the 38-year-old’s achievements are even more impressive given he suffers from a rare eye condition known as Autosomal Dominant Optic Atrophy (ADOA). This means Searle is sometimes unable to see where his darts land on the board.
‘It was only in the last 18 months that I realised what the diagnosis was for my vision,’ he told Sky Sports. ‘It’s been bad for as long as I can remember.’
‘But to have a diagnosis for it is really good and it puts you in that place where you know what’s wrong with your vision. There’s no cure for what I’ve got so I’m stuck with it. I wear contact lenses now to try and take a bit of the blurriness away from my vision.
‘But sometimes on stage I’m asking the caller what I’ve scored and sometimes I don’t and it puts me in a bit of a difficult position!
‘If I can inspire people that maybe can’t see as well as others to pick up the game and give it a go, then it means a lot to me.’
Searle has raised around £15,000 for the Cure ADOA Foundation and is hoping to bring in more going forward.
The 38-year-old also revealed his daughter is registered as ‘visually impaired’ and explained how his vision is so bad that he may be unable to drive when he’s older.
‘It can get worse out of nowhere,’ Searle added. ‘I’m on the legal limit now to be able to drive so I wear glasses or contacts to be able to drive.
‘If my vision was to get any worse, which it could at any point, then I’d have to find a driver somewhere.’
Searle’s run is even more notable given he generally shown his best form away from the televised stage.
The 38-year-old, who earned a PDC tour card in 2017, also remarkably claimed earlier at the Worlds that Gary Anderson and Ryan Joyce were probably only two players who cared less about darts than him.
Searle is understandably a huge underdog for his clash with Littler.
The teen sensation has won all five of their previous encounters, but a victory would see Searle rise to world No 4, automatically qualifying him for a place in the Premier League this year.
