Retired autoworker (Gentleman) Jim Long loving life on the professional darts tour

Winnipeg Free Press

21 hours ago

(Gentleman) Jim Long has been a man in motion since winning his Professional Darts Corporation tour card in January.
The retired autoworker from London, Ont., headed to Europe with wife Rhonda on Feb. 6 to compete. The initial plan was to come home March 3 but he had to delay their return after qualifying for a European tour event scheduled for March 7 in Belgium.
They didn't get home until March 28.
'I couldn't tell you how many trains I took,' Long said of the trip that took them to England, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.
Long, 57, returned to Europe seven days after coming home. This time he went solo since Rhonda, his partner since 1989 and mother of their three kids, couldn't face another transatlantic trip so soon. He spent three weeks on tour by himself.
There was one more five-day trip to Europe before Long, Rhonda and son Zach left for Germany on Monday for the 2025 BetVictor World Cup of Darts, which runs through Sunday in Frankfurt.
Long and Hamilton's Matt (Ginjaninja) Campbell, who earned his tour card in 2022, lost their opening match 4-1 to Malaysia's Tengku Shah and Tan Jenn Ming on Thursday.
Tenth-seeded Canada continues Group F play Friday against Denmark at the Eissporthalle Frankfurt, home of the Löwen Frankfurt hockey team.
Forty countries are competing with the top four seeds — defending champion England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland — given a bye to the second round where they will be joined by the 12 group winners.
The tournament offers 450,000 pounds ($832,900) in prize money, ranging from 4,000 pounds ($7,405) for the team that finishes last in its opening-round group to 80,000 pounds ($148,075) for the winning duo.
It's Long's second trip to the World Cup of Darts. He competed with Dawson Murschell in 2019, making the quarterfinals in Hamburg after upsetting fifth-seeded Australia.
Long and Campbell are good friends. Before Campbell, a former welder, turned pro, he and Long would meet up twice a month 'to sharpen each other up and play.'
Long is loving life on tour, although the travel, jet lag and logistics have proved challenging.
'I'm having the best time. Fun doesn't quite cover it even,' he said in an interview. 'The travel is exhausting … But the excitement of playing and walking into the venue with 127 other professional darts players, the guys that I watched on TV and I continue to watch on TV now, it's still exhilarating for me.
'The guys are friendly. You'd be surprised, the top guys, they're just friendly and they'll talk to you just like you're one of the group.'
World No. 14 Peter (Snakebite) Wright, a two-time world champion known for his colourful Mohawk, had him stay over during one of his trips.
'When I get home I'm usually thinking when do I get to go back?' said Long.
He calls it the 'perfect retirement plan.'
Long's goal is to enjoy the experience — and hopefully break even on his travels.
'I found that so far I'm not playing as good as I'd like but I'm winning matches … I've done OK money-wise,' he said. 'The first trip over I lost money, of course, but the next two I've actually made some money which has been kind of nice.'
His best result so far was reaching the final 16 at an event in Germany before losing to No. 34 Brendan (The History-Maker) Dolan.
Long, who has won his first-matches about half the time, acknowledges he has been putting pressure on himself to do well.
'I just want to show I belong,' he said.
Long demonstrated that at Q-School where more 870 entries competed for 29 tour cards. He became the seventh Canadian to earn one, following Campbell, Murschell, John Part, Jeff Smith, John Norman Jr., and Ken MacNeil.
The tour card lasts for two years and earns him admission to 50-plus events in a year.
Long said the first thing he did when he got the competition schedule was to take down his fridge calendar to start planning his itinerary.
'It's a little overwhelming to be honest,' said Long, who does his own travel arrangements.
Competitors who finish in the top 64 of the PDC Order of Merit get to retain their tour card after the initial two-year period. Long is currently ranked 108th while Campbell is No. 53.
Long worked for General Motors from 1990 to 2020, working on the Chevrolet Equinox. He was a team leader on the assembly line for 18 years before finishing his career there in the paint shop.
He got into darts after high school. He used to play pool at a local tavern in Wardsville after work and was invited to play darts one day when they were a man short.
Long has twice competed at the PDC World Darts Championship.
In 2018, he upset Northern Ireland's Mickey (The Clonoe Cyclone) Mansell in the first round before falling to Dutch pro Benito van de Pas, the 30th seed.
Long, listed as a 2,500/1 longshot in the 96-player field at London's Alexandra Palace, earned 25,000 pounds ($46,285) as a second-round loser, more than enough to cover his expenses. He lost to England's James (Hillbilly) Hurrell in the first round in December 2024.
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After he competed at Alexandra Palace the first time, he got a Facebook friend request from a 12-year-old Luke Littler. Now 18, Littler is ranked second on the PFC Order of Merit and won the PDC World Championship in January.
Long didn't have to wait long to face Littler, whose nickname is The Nuke. The two were paired up in the first outing of Long's first competition after winning his tour card.
Long was up 3-0 and 4-2 but eventually lost 6-4 to the teenage sensation who recorded three straight 100-plus checkouts en route to the win.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 12, 2025.