Ally McCoist call to Cameron Menzies revealed as Rangers legend offers support to emotional darts star over ill dad
Emotional Cameron Menzies shed his Ally Pally tears because he was battling for ill dad Ricky.
And supportive hero Ally McCoist got involved to try and lift the stressed Scot's spirits as he fought to boost his father and also keep alive his Worlds dream. Manager Tommy Gilmour has revealed the truth after Menzies broke down on-stage during his defeat to Leonard Gates. The overwhelmed Ayrshire ace was distraught during the final two legs of his loss during a harrowing finale.
Menzies had been hounded by the London crowd throughout the match, but it was family matters and not the baying mob that brought emotions to a head. Just minutes after the defeat, the player posted a picture of Ricky in hospital saying “this is all”. Gilmour has now revealed the facts, the turmoil Menzies has been through after his dad underwent an operation and the assistance of McCoist during a tough time.
The chief of Dunvegan Management said: “Ally is his greatest hero in sport. So I got Ally to phone him just a couple of days ago, once his old man had had the operation and just to try and cheer him up because he spent the last couple of weeks up here in Scotland, trying to do it. We were aware that he was going in under a lot of stress and this was the best way to try and shake him up.
“He’s never, for all his biggest heroes, actually spoken to or mentioned anything to do with Coisty. But I knew that that was his hero, so I got Coisty to speak to him, to do it. But it’s only now that his dad’s starting to make improvements.
“That’s it, but that’s obviously been at the back of his mind. I’ve been speaking to him and he’s not been feeling well the last few days anyway, but the main thing was, no matter what was going on, he knew that his dad, more than anything, would want him to play, rather than me saying: Cammy, don’t play in the World Championships.
“I don’t think that that would have been the right thing to do. It was a decent draw. I think, under normal circumstances, he had the beating Leonard Gates anyway. But with all the pressure that he’s had with dad and his family and everything else, it was great that Ally came in to try and do his wee bit to give him a wee pick-me-up.
“With somebody who’s an emotional person at the best of times, for somebody like Cammy to just forget about it while his dad’s still in the hospital, albeit that Cammy tells me that he’s on the mend and each day he’s getting better. We’ve known about the problems and stuff, we did know the seriousness of it that, we said what can we do to try and brighten his day? And brightening his day was asking Ally.
“But all those pressures all at the one time? He beats himself up. He worries about letting other people down. We talk to him more than anybody because we realise, we’ve been long enough in this game to know when there’s a wee problem. But pulling him out of the World Championship, I didn’t take it as a choice because when you’re trying to build up somebody’s confidence, the last thing you want to do is to kill a dream.
“We were totally aware of the problems, but it was a problem that we had to take a chance because it would have upset Cammy and, once his dad had heard about it, it certainly would have upset him. So it was keeping everybody right.”
Menzies was taking deep breaths to try and cope with the situation on stage and Gilmour continued: “He suffers from asthma, anyway. So that’s what he’s been doing. I spoke to him Sunday and he’d been slightly under the weather.
“He tries to make a joke of the man flu and everything else like that, but it’s obviously the pressure of his dad being ill and the excitement of also playing in the biggest stage in his sport. But he certainly shouldn’t beat himself up in any way because the progress that he’s made in the last 12 months has been absolutely superb and he’ll certainly be there for next year.”
