The Fen Tiger is ready to roar from the world's top stages once again after 18 months in the darts wilderness.
West Drayton's Peter Evison is almost fully recovered from a career-threatening injury and with the aid of a new sponsor he is getting his teeth into a new challenge.
For the first time in well over a year the 1996 World Matchplay champion is playing almost pain-free and is now stalking a place in the 2010 Embassy World Championships at Frimley Green.
Evison, who had a trapped nerve which dogged him until several months ago, said: "I carried on playing through it but I couldn't get a dart above the bullseye and I couldn't reach to get the darts out of the board with my right arm.
"I still get pains in my arm after playing a tournament but I've worked hard in the gym to get back to normal and I'm about 90 per cent there now.
"Now my injury's over and done with I can only go one way and that's back up."
Evison, who was born in Chiswick but has lived in West Drayton for 19 years, has been practising up to six hours a day at the Ivy Leaf Memorial Club near his home.
It was there he met Mark Smith, who runs Trade Ex in Station Road, and the car sales company will now sponsor Evison which means he can afford to travel abroad to play in tournaments and therefore boost his ranking.
At the start of the month he earned his first points in Prague after reaching the last 16 of the Czech Open from a field of 400 and this weekend he flies out to play in the Swedish Open.
Trips to the Isle of Man, Holland and Belgium are already pencilled in for next year.
If all goes to plan the 44-year-old will be at Frimley Green in January 2010 for the British Darts Organisation World Championships - the first time Evison will have been to a World Championship since 2005.
He will again take part in the Betfred.com Legends of Darts tour next year, having reached the semi-finals in its inaugural season although his participation in it cost him his involvement in the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC).
Evison was one of the founder members of the World Darts Council which then became the PDC, which he and 13 other top play-ers including Eric Bristow and Phil Taylor, set up 16 years ago to improve the sport and boost the earning power of players. He is still a shareholder but has been kicked out for playing the legends tour because it was deemed a conflict of interest.
His interest in darts may have wavered in the darkest days of his injury but the Fen Tiger is set to bare his teeth again in a bid to return to his glory days when he won the World Matchplay, in which he beat Taylor 8-1 on the way to defeating Dennis Priestley 16-14 in a thrilling final, as well as the 1989 World Masters where he again saw off Taylor on the way to toppling Bristow for the title.
"Because of my injury I was so depressed I didn't think I could ever do that again but now I've seen my injury progress and my darts have got better and better there's light at the end of the tunnel," said Evison, who needs to be ranked in the top 26 to guarantee qualification for the World Championships. "I want those days back and I can't wait to compete at that level again.
"I've put in so much hard work and now I can see things happening I don't mind doing the work." [25a0] For more information see Evison's website www.peterevison.co.uk or www.bdodarts.com.
