TERRY ‘The Bull’ Jenkins has rubbished claims that he is ready to step away from the oche.

National press reports suggest the Ledbury pitcher is considering retiring from the sport to move into the property and antiques business.

But Jenkins has revealed those reports are off the mark.

He simply intends to reduce the number of tournaments in which he participates.

The 45-year-old said: “I never said I was going to finish with darts in the next two years at all.

“I said that I’m playing every week and it’s too much. I want to carry on what I’m doing for a while before gradually beginning to wind down.

“I might feel different in two years, but at the moment I’m not packing up.

“There’s Players’ Championship events every week, and soon I’m going to have to decide what I enter as I don’t want to be playing darts every week, it’s too busy.

“I’ve invested in property so I won’t need to play darts for the next 10 years to make a living.

“I just want to do enough to play in the televised events.”

Jenkins has had an indifferent start to the year.

He won the Bobby Bourne Memorial Players’ Championship but was knocked out of the first round of the World Darts Championship, and struggled in the Premier League Darts competition where he is sixth after last week’s draw with Mervyn King.

But Jenkins lost three points after Wayne Mardle’s withdrawal from the competition through illness.

Jenkins, who faces John Part in Sheffield tonight, is pleased with his form: “I’m still number five in the PDC world rankings, but the Premier League has not been so good. I’ve been playing better than three or four players, but had no luck. I’m not getting the wins.

“Players are playing well against me, and with Mardle dropping out it doesn’t look like I’ll make the semi-finals. If he’d carried on, I feel I could have finished above Raymond van Barneveld and John Part.

“I’m playing really well, but televised tournaments and matchplay events are totally different. The Premier League is like a glorified exhibition match; it doesn’t matter who wins as we’re all getting paid for it.

“I’d rather concentrate on the matchplay events, such as the Las Vegas Desert Classic, the UK Open and the World Matchplay as they’re more important.”