Stephen Bunting match halted as referee steps in | Other | Sport

A darts referee took matters into his own hands after another match was blighted by whistling fans. Huw Ware was overseeing the action as Stephen Bunting took on home player Niko Springer at the European Darts Trophy in Gottingen, Germany.

At 5-5, the match went to a deciding leg. However, a grandstand finish was overshadowed when Bunting was subjected to whistling as he was about to throw. That prompted senior PDC official Ware, who had already asked fans to show respect, to tell the minority ruining it for the rest to “shut up”. The Welsh caller said: “I’ve asked politely once and I’ll say it impolitely: shut up please. Trying to have a game of darts up here.” Springer went on to win the leg to set up a third round clash with Ross Smith on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Bunting spoke out about the whistles following his exit from the tournament, saying: “I never moan about defeats or cry about them but feel really hurt tonight even though it was a small minority of people.

“To boo and whistle at important times through any match isn’t acceptable and if you want to do that go to a football match.

“I understand why certain players don’t want to travel over here for the whistling but like I say it isn’t all the time.”

Ware wasn’t the only official to tear into the whistlers. The PDC’s European MC, Philip Brzezinski, took to mic to say: “There’s 3-4 people who through their whistling destroyed an amazing game, to those 4 people from 4 thousand we’ll say: you are not welcome here. We don’t want this.”

The rant drew applause from Springer and many of the fans in the arena. Brzezinski later took to social media to double down on his message. He wrote: “99,99% of the crowd in Göttingen tonight were amazing, as good as gold and we appreciate them greatly. Thank you [heart emoji]

“And to the 4 or 5 people that interfered with their whistling, I will stick to what I said on stage: we don’t want you here.”

Luke Humphries also suffered with his own whistling issues as he beat Littler in the semi-finals, distracting him on a match dart before he eventually clinched the match and cupped his ears in the direction of the crowd.