Ryan Searle is one of darts ' most unique players - mainly because the arrowsmith struggles to see the board. Heavy Metal - as he’s affectionately known - has won six titles at PDC Players Championship events and has made it to one major final during his career so far. Searle cuts a distinctive figure at the oche.
The long-haired darts ace sports a bold black-and-red shirt, with one of his arms - the throwing one - covered in elaborate tattoos. At 31 grams, he also boasts some of the heaviest darts on the Tour, with most players opting to use arrows that weigh between 20 and 24 grams. But it’s his eyesight that makes Searle so much different to his competitors.
The 37-year-old suffers from a condition called astigmatism, which causes distorted or blurred eyesight. For Searle, it manifests itself in blurred vision for objects in the distance. Searle does wear contact lenses to help combat the condition, but it doesn’t completely eradicate the problem and the darts star has been known to stop matches and ask what score he needs.
Speaking about the impact it’s had on his career, he said: "I wear contact lenses to play and it's improved my sight a little bit. I was about [No.] 54 in the world playing without contact lenses, then I went up to about [No.
] 15 once I could see a little bit better. “I'm quite a rhythmic player so it helped that I wasn’t having to stop and ask [the referee] every few throws. It has definitely helped my game.
It's still not great and I have .
