Alan Soutar wants to put the bite on his Ally Pally rivals wearing his new tartan Guide Dog trousers.
The big-hearted Scot plans on sporting the colours of the charity when he faces Kai Gotthardt in today’s World Championship crunch.
Soutar keeps pooches to assist Guide Dogs Scotland and will show his support when he’s unleashed against the German. The fireman who is a firefighter by day in Dundee, said: “I basically keep a trainee guide dog for 12-to-14 months. They go into training and you get them from about six months.
“This is our seventh year of doing it and this is dog number seven at the moment. It’s actually a kind of link this year because for my first game. I’m going to be wearing the guide dog tartan trousers. I’ve got a new pair of tartan trousers made up with guide dogs tartan.
“They’re kind of like blue and green with a bright yellow on them, so they really stand out and I think they probably match up with my blue Scotland shirt. It’s for Guide Dogs UK, obviously I do it for Guide Dogs Scotland.”
Soutar hopes to be dancing his way into the next round with a new tune as he continued: “I’ve actually I’ve actually just changed my walk-on song. I’ve been mucking about with it for far too long and I don’t really have a song.
“The kind of music I listen to doesn’t fit with a walk-on because I listen to a hardcore, you know, Dirk van Duijvenbode type music. The more experience and exhibitions I’ve done, the more I realise that you just want a song for the crowd. It doesn’t really matter if it lines up to you.
“Freed from Desire has become such a huge anthem and I hope it gets the fans on my side. If you can turn the crowd on your side from the first minute of your walk-on, that’s a huge bonus.”
Success for Soutar will see him book a glamour second-round tie against Stephen Bunting, but he faces a dangerous opponent in Gotthardt. He said: “The plan is for another good run, but it doesn’t always work out that way, does it? I’ve not really had a bad experience at Ally Pally, have I? Hopefully we continue that trend.
“To draw Kai as well, that’s not easy. If you win the German Super League, you can play at the Ally Pally and I’ve seen him on the Pro Tour a few times this year and he’s a decent chucker. But at the same time, if I play my A game and turn up at Ally Pally, then I like to fancy my chances. I think that’s the one thing in my favour over Kai to start with will be this is all new to him.
“Although he’s played in a few events, the Ally Pally is very different and it’s a very different crowd. I suppose there’ll be a few Germans, I’m sure he’ll have that in his back pocket, but I’d like to think the British crowd will support a Scottish lad over the German lad.
“I can’t think much ahead of Kai because he’s such a good player. But it will be massive to play Stephen. We are great mates, we eat and practice together on the Euro Tours, the two of us always gravitate towards each other.
“We’ve played him a few times and I’ve beaten him a few times. So in my head, I know I can beat him and he knows that too. But I’ll think about that once I’ve got past Kai.”
Fireman Soutar is refreshed for his bid as he explained: “I’ve actually got annual leave for more of Christmas and New Year this time. But I will be doing the Christmas night shift for someone else, because I’m the older guy and some of the others have got a young family. I can actually go down there totally fresh. I’ve actually had a couple of weeks off work as well so I’m feeling really relaxed after a lot of practice.”