"I’m looking down at her wristband, and she thought I was looking at her bum" — Martin Schindler looks back at awkward PDC security guard moment

Martin Schindler made striking sacrifices in his early years on the PDC circuit to get his darts career off the ground. The German, now world number 15, even worked unpaid as a steward at PDC tournaments as a teenager to afford entry to European Tour qualifiers.

‘The Wall’ struck a special deal with PDC Europe at 17. In exchange for his work as a steward, he received access to qualifying events he otherwise couldn’t afford.

On the Tops and Tales podcast, Schindler looked back on that period. "I wanted to play the European qualifiers back in the day, and they were quite expensive.

“So I made a bargain with the PDC, saying, let’s say, I work for free as a steward in your events, so I can play in your qualifying tournaments.

Schindler stressed he didn’t receive a single cent for his work. “I worked as a steward for free, with no payment for me, because my payment was obviously playing in the European qualifiers. I was 17 back then, so I was still going to school. I didn’t have any work either, so obviously money was tight back in the day for me. And yeah, it was a very nice offer from one guy at PDC Europe.

His memories go back to 2014 at the European Darts Open in Düsseldorf. Schindler qualified but lost in the first round to Raymond van Barneveld. “I started in 2014 because I still remember that I qualified for one of these, played against Raymond van Barneveld, and lost that one. And like an hour later, I needed to stand at a door and make sure nobody could pass through who didn’t have the right wristband.

“I can tell you, you can ask the people of Düsseldorf. I think I took like four or five hundred pictures that day. So, I really left an impression back there.”

His most awkward moment, however, came by the smoking area. “I was outside and was checking for somebody coming out of the smoking area into the venue again, and I needed to check the wristbands. There was a couple walking in, let’s say, both about 40 years of age.

“So the woman walks past me, and I’m looking down at her wristband, and she thought I was looking at her bum.

The situation only cleared up when her partner stepped in. “She gave me a really dirty look, like: why is he looking at me like that? And then her husband said: ‘He was looking at your wristband.’”

Schindler put the incident into perspective with a smile. “She was walking past me and was looking at me really disgusted, like, ‘Oh no. Why would he look at me like that?’ And then her husband told her, ‘He was looking at your wristband.’

“I mean, literally, I was 17, 18 years of age. And I don’t want to be disrespectful to the woman, but she was about 40 or something. So, okay, definitely not my age, if you know what I mean.”