Darts star calls for extreme rule change and demands fans issued lengt | Other | Sport

Darts star Nathan Aspinall has called for a huge ban for darts fans after getting aggravated by their whistling at major events. The Englishman is playing against Kevin Doets on Monday night in the round of 32 after beating American thrower Leonard Gates 3-0 in the World Darts Championship.

In tennis and golf, it’s widely frowned upon to make any noise during high-pressure moments. However, quite remarkably, in darts it’s widely accepted that the players must be able to operate in a chaotic environment with jeering punters fuelled by booze.

While the chanting and jeering is simply seen as part of the game, whistling seems to really aggravate the top-level professionals.

Whistlers often target players aiming for a crucial double to take the set or leg, which obviously negatively impacts their throw. German Ricardo Pietreczko, who was dumped out of the Worlds by Andreas Harrysson, has previously detailed how “p****d off” he became after whistling and booing in his previous match against Dave Chisnall.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I think it’s an experience with the crowd and the whistling and the booing. It’s all an experience to make to myself. Yeah, after the 2-2, I’m a little bit, I don’t know, p***ed off about the crowd because it’s whistling to me in my throw. It’s important for me to not show it to the crowd. In the tournament, it’s only me. I want to win this tournament and I’ll try my best to do it.”

Aspinall has now echoed the thoughts of Pietreczko, stating there needs to be consequences for whistling at the Worlds.

Speaking to SunSport, he said: “I’ve said in EuroTours, in my on-stage interviews, will you just stop whistling, enjoy the darts, stop being muppets.

“It’s then gone over Instagram and TikTok, saying: ‘Nathan lashes out at the crowd…’ People will see that but does that encourage them? Because they know they’re winding the players up.

“You sit in silence, you don’t do anything, it’ll continue. You speak out, you say something, it’ll continue.

“How do you monitor 10,000 people from sticking their fingers in their mouth to whistle? So, what can be done? I think the people that get caught shouldn’t just get kicked out, they should get banned for say five years.

“Something where they’re going to feel the effects of what they’ve done. Then, once a few of them start doing it, hopefully they’ll go: ‘I’m absolutely gutted, I can’t go to the darts, I got a five-year ban from whistling, trust me, don’t do it.’”

He continued: “I bet it might take a couple of years but maybe that could be something. A lot of darts games are determined by the crowd. The standard is that close. Missing one dart at double 16 on a 109 could lose you that game.

“And then some k***head whistles. Unless you tape everyone’s mouths shut when they walk in.

“I just think that if you give people bans once they get kicked out then it might change things.”