Darts' night of shame

Last night saw the long awaited rematch of January's Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship final between Adrian Lewis and Gary Anderson in week 6 of the 888.com Premier League. What was expected was a top-class display of arrows that would wow us like the Alexandra Palace showpiece did, all done before a partisan but well behaved Scottish crowd. What we got was one of the most shameful hours in the competition's - no, the sport's history.

Of course we expected the World Champion to be subjected to a rough reception - he was playing a Scotsman in Scotland after all, but nobody could have expected or can condone the line which was crossed by a small minority.

Lewis had beer thrown at him during his walk-on, and as if that wasn't bad enough, he then had to withstand a barrage of coins thrown at himself and even the dartboard during his visits to the oche. I don't think any player would have been able to take that, and nobody was surprised when Anderson, at this point visibly upset and embarrasssed at his countrymen's actions, raced into a 3-0 lead.

Anderson looked even more rattled by it than Lewis did, and at one point picked a coin up from the stage, pocketed it, and then missed three darts at double top, arguably deliberately, to gift Lewis a leg he nearly got booed out of.

Although the professional standard these days means that players are rarely put off their stride by crowd noise, this was something else, and both players posted averages (Lewis 88.18, Anderson 87.28) a full eleven and twelve points lower than their respective 99's at the World final in January. The majority of the supporters - who it must be said had been well behaved, and had earlier given Raymond van Barneveld an unbelievable reception - had every right to feel cheated.

Sadly, the PDC's tournaments, and especially the Premier League, are no stranger to misbehaving fans, but this is surely the incident - which has to be seen to be truly believed - that makes Barry Hearn and his team stand up, take notice and realise that the players and the real fans will not stand for it any longer.