Fear of walk-offs grows after crowd misbehavior: "It’s feeling like it’s more part and parcel, but I just hope it isn’t"

Crowd behavior at major darts tournaments remains a point of debate. At recent events there was renewed whistling and shouting at crucial moments, something analyst Laura Turner says is becoming more common. The Sky Sports pundit fears the issue could spiral and that players may eventually lose patience.

The discussion was sparked in part by incidents during a Premier League night in Nottingham, where players were visibly affected by disruptive noise from the crowd. Earlier this month, referee Huw Ware also had to step in at the European Darts Trophy in Göttingen, urging the audience to be quiet after Stephen Bunting was distracted by shouting from the stands.

Turner sees no easy fix for the problem. “It is really tough, isn’t it?” she says on the Love the Darts podcast. “You’ve got to hope that the people that are sat around them can appeal to their better nature because ultimately, you’re paying money.

“You want to go and see the best players in the world. Then you spend your whole time booing and whistling and then you’re not allowing the players to get the best out of themselves.

According to Turner, this behavior is most common on the European Tour, but it is now appearing at big televised tournaments too. “I think you see it quite a lot on the Euro Tour and it has creeped into certain major competitions as well, but I know as a fan and as a pundit and even as someone who’s played in big arenas, it’s horrible. You don’t want that at all. But like you say, it’s feeling like it’s more part and parcel, but I just hope it isn’t.

The Englishwoman fears it is increasingly becoming part of modern darts, which worries her. “It could even come to a point where players just decide they’ve had enough, and they walk off the stage."

Turner thinks it’s logical that officials are now getting involved. “You know, you’ve got referees like, Huw Ware; he’s now starting to react as well. To say, you know, we don’t want it. You saw Philip [Brzezinski], who was the MC for that weekend in the Euro Tour when Stephen Bunting got a lot of hassle from the crowd."

Turner says the sport is talking about it more and more, although stopping it entirely remains difficult. “He’s actually now turning around and saying, we don’t want it. So, you know, it is being discussed more and, you know, we’re trying to force it out, but as you say, it’s so tough.”