Roughly translated, Danny Trueman means ‘really blunt bloke’. And this is the tale of an English-born future arrow-smith who moved to Scotland as a child for a healthy diet of porridge oats, haggis and everything washed down with Irn-Bru.
In fact, the 47-year-old is probably one good caber toss away from being completely accepted by the Jocks! Of course, being only seven years old when the family moved north from Cumbria, the decision wasn’t really Danny’s to make.
“No! My Dad worked in oil and gas, so he relocated to Aberdeenshire for work.”
Good idea. Oil rigs galore up there off the coast of the Granite City. More than palm trees in the Bahamas. So a town called Macduff became home, and from that point onwards there was only ever one football club that mattered.
“Well naturally Aberdeen. I consider myself more Scottish now than English.”
Football remained Danny’s first sporting love for years. In fact, he says he was pretty handy – a bit of a midfield dynamo who played semi-professionally. Which, in Scotland, is roughly the level of Celtic and Rangers. Just kidding. Got to get the gags in early.
“I played at a decent level and even got paid for it. Was only a few pennies then, something like £50 a week. But to be honest, it was more of a hobby.”
Think of Danny as the Steven Gerrard of the PDC darts circuit. If that were true, only Stephen Bunting could understand him.
Eventually, love blossomed as Trueman met his true woman in Sabrina. Local Scottish girl? Nope. She’s from London. But he must have been keen because he married her, and together they now have four beautiful children, nicely balanced at two of each.
Eventually, football began to give way to another pastime.
So Mr T (which could get weird if I suggest he boards a plane), what got you into the arrows?
“I needed something to replace the football. So I played a bit of golf and some darts – then noticed I was better at darts. That was about ten years ago. I’ve been progressing steadily since.”
Progressing steadily seems quite the understatement. Danny – nicknamed The Show, for reasons that, given his surname, should be fairly self-explanatory – decided to give the PDC Challenge Tour a whirl. Yet that wasn’t until the start of last year. Why the wait, pal?
“Well, it all came down to work and flexibility. Plus, before then, I never felt I was at the required standard. Just after COVID, I was going to give it a try but until I felt fully confident of going on the Challenge Tour, confident of winning a game and not getting thrashed, I didn’t bother.”
Great logic. Don’t try to swim the English Channel if you still wear armbands down your local baths. You’d die. Not quite as dramatic a consequence when playing darts, admittedly, but you get the point I’m making.
So Danny packed his trunk and said goodbye to the circus – well, Macduff, which sounds more like a Scottish detective drama starring a constantly angry and antagonising Northern Irish darts player than an actual town – and off he went to the Challenge Tour armed with a change of clothes, a set of darts and plenty of dreams.
After a year of getting acclimatised, he’s done pretty well since. That said, Milton Keynes and Leicester do take some adjusting to.
“Happy with this year. Had a couple of quarter-finals. I feel I’ve got that win in me, just need that break to take it into the final stages.
“I went to Germany earlier in the season, played well but just didn’t get the results.”
Often the way, my friend. But after that block of Challenge Tours, he received the call that every player on the circuit dreams of – promotion to perform with the big boys.
“I probably felt I deserved to get in the Pro Tour earlier. After our events in Hildesheim, I was thrilled to get the call. Wasn’t expecting it though as I was too low down on the Order of Merit to get called up. But a lot of players don’t travel for that one.”
No, they don’t seem to. Perhaps it has something to do with baggage preservation and the venue being in the middle of nowhere. I’m just firing shots into the sky here.
So how was it? Did you buddy up with anyone?
“Yes. I used to play a lot online with Rob Owen, so bumped into him and Adam Lipscombe at the hotel, who took me under their wing. It was so surreal. In the venue, Michael van Gerwen was on the table next to me.”
Quite the reality check! Danny did bag a win on day one though.
“I beat Nick Kenny. Then missed darts to go 3-1 up against Rob Cross. After that, came back and beat me. On day two, I got smashed by Chris Dobey who averaged something like 107. All I could do is stand behind him and admire.”
Sounds about right. If you miss a simple red against Ronnie O’Sullivan, you probably aren’t getting another visit. Then when a Geordie Ace limits you to a single dart at a double, well… you’re probably not winning that one either.
But that belief carried over into the ADC too, although even there Danny wasn’t exactly expecting miracles. In fact, his recent victory at the Winmau Championship North events almost didn’t happen. Danny takes up the tale.
“My mate rang me in the week to see if I fancied going down to Middlesbrough. I had nothing on that weekend so thought may as well.”
Four kids and a wife… nothing going on? Something doesn’t quite add up there! Anyway, we continue.
“Then on the Friday, he pulled out, so my missus just told me to go anyway. To be honest, I didn’t expect to win one. I knew I was throwing decent – about the 90-average mark – so you never know.
“The standard there though is tough. Lots of great players so I was thrilled to get the win.”
Trueman also keeps the ADC theme going with regular trips to the Vault events. But with the likes of Jamie Bain, Scott Robertson and William Borland competing, it’s hardly your average local knockout where a 60 average gets you out of the group. At least where I come from anyway!
“Yeah it’s like a mini Challenge Tour. But I managed to secure a MODUS Super Series place through one. Then I have another trip to Portsmouth in October.
“It’s great MODUS supporting the Vault and that concept gives so many fantastic opportunities. It turns decent pub players into Super League ones. I had a mate who was only averaging around 40 – now he’s up to 60. It’s great because you get to play a decent number of matches a night – more than you would in a league team.”
Well, given MODUS own the ADC, it makes sense they’d want to incentivise it. If you owned Cadbury and a fleet of Ice Cream vans, you’d probably encourage every Mr Whippy in Britain to push those bad boys hard to shift as many Flakes as possible
On his one trip to the Live Lounge this year, Trueman narrowly missed out on reaching Finals Day.
“I didn’t do great in Group A, so ended up in Group C. Started well, winning four out of five on the Thursday. Then I dipped and probably tried too hard on the Friday.
“But there were some good performances in there. A 101 average against Richie Howson and lots of other decent showings.”
Solid operator is the Owl. If you’re pushing Richie Howson all the way in Portsmouth, you’re doing something right.
Hopefully, when Danny returns in October, the experience from his first visit will stand him in good stead. He certainly can’t speak highly enough of the MODUS Live Lounge crew.
“They were really supportive. I was very impressed with how much they looked after me. They gave me a full tour, the lot. I even did a video with Owen Binks for his TikTok on the whole football Spygate thing!”
Yeah… that’s the only downside to travelling there. Binksey will inevitably rope you into a spot of amateur dramatics.
But we’ll leave Danny to tell us about his proudest moment. In darts, obviously. You can’t really ask a bloke to choose between his wedding day and the birth of four children… especially if they’re reading this.
“It has to be reaching the WDF World Cup Finals for Scotland in pairs. That was 2023 in Denmark. I also got a bronze medal for the team event too.”
“Then being voted Player of the Tournament at the WDF British Internationals in 2025 was a massive high point.”
Two memories safely stored away in the tungsten locker, that’s for sure. Hopefully, with the way Danny’s career is accelerating, there’ll be plenty more waiting to be added to the Trueman darting safe.
