Darts fans targeted and have beer thrown over them because they had Welsh flag
A group of darts fans from Wales, who were at Alexandra Palace last night to support defending world champion Gerwyn Price in his PDC World Championship quarter-final clash against Michael Smith, have spoken out about how they were subjected to vile abuse because they had a Welsh flag.
Tyler Richards and two friends from Pencoed, who are massive darts fans and regularly attend events, were targeted by English fans who threw beer and threatened them at the end of the match because they were supporting the Welshman.
However, they now say the authorities have to take action after the match and atmosphere turned ugly as Price crashed out in a thriller – despite pulling off a magical nine dart finish.
English people targeting and throwing beer over us after the match because we had a Welsh flag is hilarious, great people honestly🤣
— Tyler Richards🏴 (@TheRealTR19) January 2, 2022
At one point, as the Welshman looked close to clinching a place in the semi-final, he stopped the match to point out to the referee a group who were abusing him.
Throughout the week, Price has been subjected to vile xenophobic chants and constant abuse.
Tyler believes the authorities at the PDC (Professional Darts Corporation) now need to urgently act – both on the abuse of Gerwyn Price and the drunken, ugly atmosphere of the crowd.
“During the match it wasn’t too bad with a few ‘sheep sh*ggers’ chants towards us lightheartedly but the more the match went on, more beer got consumed, it was more about celebrating right in front of us every time Smith won a leg/set then in the last set it was getting quite tense and a few boys behind us started getting quite nasty, then once the last dart went in they were pointing and celebrating in our faces.
“Then as we were clapping both players and lifting the flag for Gezzy to see, there was beers being flung at us and emptied over us calling us sheep sh*ggers, a few were trying to wind us up to retaliate but we just left it be with beers being flung at us again.
“In the back of your mind you know everyone has had a drink or 10 so it could very quickly escalate and get out of hand, so we quickly got out of there.”
Fairness
The Welsh darts fan said the vile chants Price faced through the match should be called what it was – hateful xenophobia.
“The Gezzy abuse was horrid,” said Tyler. “He got called every name under and got told he was the most hated person there, constantly booing him – except the nine darter which they all loved which is ironic. Then as he was taking his throw someone was letting out a shrill high pitched noise just as he was taking it. Xenophobia at its finest.
“The abuse of Gezzy should never have got this far, I think a lot of the onus is on the PDC for not taking action. When they needed to really clamp down on it they just let it happen and now Gezzy can’t play his game anymore because he’s playing against more than just his opponent these days. It needs to be dealt with so he has the same amount of fairness as everyone else.”
Tyler, who was at the match with mates Matthew Roberts and Ian Burnell, travelled up early for the quarter-finals yesterday, and will be at the semis tonight and the finals tomorrow.
The Welshman loves his darts and thinks it’s now time to move the World Championships to other countries to avoid a repeat of the unpleasant scenes that were witnessed last night.
“I saw one suggestion about maybe moving the worlds to Netherlands or maybe even moving it to a different country every year – maybe even the home of the winner – so the crowds can be a bit fairer as we’ve definitely missed the Dutch and Germans in the crowd this year,” he said.
“Another idea is maybe being a lot tighter on the eligibility of purchasing tickets for the tournaments so it isn’t easy to randomly pick up a ticket, with tighter priority groups.”
Tyler admitted that despite the unpleasantness of Gerwyn Price’s exit – both on stage and off – he’s looking forward to the rest of the World Championships.
“It should be a belter,” he said. “We can sit back and enjoy whoever the winner will be now instead of being on the edge of my seat for Gezzy.”
In response to his defeat at the hands of Michael Smith, Gerwyn Price today issued a defiant message, saying that he will be back stronger than ever.
In a message on his Instagram, he wrote: “Absolutely gutted to go out in the last eight of the World Championships having worked so hard the last few months. So proud of myself for just being me and playing the best I can even with all the hurdles in front of me.
“I will get stronger. I will come back better. I will practice harder. I will sacrifice more. I will succeed. I will do everything it takes to be the best.
“I will be back. Class is permanent.”
The Welshman also wrote that he now believed it was time to move the World Championships to other home countries and Europe.
He said: “it’s only fair if the World Championships are played in each country. Wales, Scotland, Ireland, England, Europe.
“Next Year in Wales please.”
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English idiots be proud to be welsh close all borders with England
Darts has a problem where its gotten a reputation as a binge drinking session. A lot of people simply don’t seem interested in the darts at all. Scenes like this are unsurprising.
But it makes money out of this reputation, so it can’t change without taking a financial hit. Big problem.
It’s interesting that it’s the audience that’s the problem now rather than the players. There was a Not The Nine O’clock News sketch that made the darts folk sit up and take notice.
“Is that how they see us?”
Err, yerr.
I must admit to being very careful making sweeping judgements on a nationality,spent years as a nationalist explaining that wanting independence from the union is not anti English,however don’t think its too judgemental to say this particular English audience is from the shallow end of the gene pool!
The paper says these chants are xenophobic, they are in actual fact racist, people have been prosecuted for it, and so should this lot, wouldn’t be too difficult to recognise them, as there are cameras everywhere. We are used to football louts, now it seems it is spreading to other sports. The days of darts matches where all that one could hear were the darts and the score caller need to be brought back, this is your fault SKY, you are as culpable as those louts.
The shallow end of the gene pool? I think their gene pool has pretty much dried out.
This is bad news for any right-wing BritNat troll who likes to label the Welsh independence campaign as “xenophobic”. What you got in this darts match was the genuine article.
If that was going on against any other country the English police would have been arresting the racist chanting English supporters and it has been allowed to go on the whole tornament against the Welshman move the tournament to another country to make it fair
No doubt this will be dismissed as ‘just banter’ and that Welsh people who are offended by it should ‘get over themselves’ or something similar. Well fine, let’s routinely refer to the English as in-bred brother/sister shagg!ng carrots and see how long it takes for them to start moaning that we are being racist,
Nothing to see here, as its Wales it can be dismissed as just banter, but replace with with any other nationality or race and there’d be uproar.
Can you imagine if this had been targeted in a similar way to a black or Muslim person.
More Anti-Wales & Welsh prejudice from our English neighbours, I see. And I’m not to tarring all with the same brush, but this was done by a minority of morons with a shared Braincell. Sadly this is becoming a regular occurrence in England, and if it’s not the BBC, Sky or GB News slighting Wales, it’s Welsh speakers being ridiculed in the streets or it’s damage to Welsh monuments within Wales itself. The racial slur continues. Although it’s never really stopped. And I’ve said this many times. The Welsh are easy targets. Hatred of Wales is the last accepted prejudice.… Read more »
why doesn’t someone report this to the police force which has responsibility for the area the tournament was held in? If this abuse was aimed at black or Jewish people it would rightly be seen as an outrage – this is racism pure and simple STOP ACCEPTING IT !
Seriously .English are like that when outnumber you 200 to 1 . Should of just started launching full bottles at em probably look for escape. .like 4 Russians did to 1000 fans when like lemmings jumping down 20 ft drop to avoid beating
Not being funny if same place in 12 months make a pact to take 1000 boys down there and kick em to bits
I far preferred the BDO darts.
Just as good a party atmosphere, but FAR more respectful.
It’s a real shame that it was so badly managed, that it ended up failing and closing.
The last BDO final comprised 2 Welshmen.