COLIN LLOYD is looking to continue his good start to 2006 at the Stan James Players Championship in Gibraltar this weekend.
The world number one suffered disappointment when he blew a two-set lead against Gary Welding in the first round of the Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship a month ago.
However, he reached the final of the Budweiser UK Open Regional Final in Newcastle earlier in January and is happy with the way he has begun the year.
"That was the first event after the World Championship and it was a chance to prove to myself, and the other players to a lesser extent, that it was just a blip," he said.
"I wanted to go there and have a decent run to show everyone that just because I've had a bad tournament it doesn't mean to say that I'm finished.
"To get to the final was nice, although it would have been better if I had beaten Kevin, but it was a little confidence boost."
The new PDPA Players Championship tournament in Gibraltar is sponsored by Stan James, and the current World Matchplay champion is 5/1 favourite to take the title - click here for full odds.
"Stan James are my sponsors and they are sponsoring the tournament, so it's an added incentive," he said.
"But it's the start of a New Year, I'm playing well and looking forward to the challenges ahead."
With the Holsten Premier League Darts set to begin in under a month, Lloyd is keen to point out he used his enforced break over Christmas to his advantage.
"It can happen in any walk of life where the top ranked player gets beaten once in a while," he said.
"In some ways it might have been a blessing in disguise, because it gave me a chance to recharge my batteries and get ready for 2006.
"We've got a lot of tournaments this year so I took the chance to have some rest.
"I had Roland Scholten staying with me over Christmas so when I was knocked out I still had the chance to get in some quality practice with him.
"It wasn't as if I got knocked out, threw my darts in a corner and left them there for a couple of weeks, I was still turning my arm over.
"I didn't sit back and thought I can hang back for the Premier League, I'm looking forward to that now.
"We've got a couple of different players in it this year, Ronnie Baxter is a tough player and I don't know who the seventh is yet but it's going to be a challenge again.
"I think one of the things that kept a lot of us going last year was that we were playing top players every week or so and that was also good for the game of darts."
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