"This has been blown out of all proportion" - Wayne Mardle denies Dimitri Van den Bergh is a cheat after controversial UK Open final win
PDCTuesday, 05 March 2024 at 19:42
Dimitri Van den Bergh prevailed in the final of the UK Open on Sunday night. 'The Dreammaker' won 11-10 over Luke Humphries to capture the second major of his career.
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Afterwards however, there was a lot of talk about the slow play of the Belgian with many percieving his antics as gamesmanship. Ex-pro turned analyst Chris Mason even went so far as to say it was "overly dramatic and not particularly sporting" as part of ITV's coverage of the final.
Wayne Marde however, doesn't agree. “This has been blown out of proportion," Mardle says in quotes collected by OCHE180. "Sport is about finding a way to win within the rules."
"Player A throws slower than player B, so Player A more or less gets called a cheat. Naive. What’s the fuss. Why should he play at a pace to suit his opponent," Mardle continues. “Apparently he’s the slowest player on the planet. This comes a year after Andrew Gilding won the event…did he ‘cheat’ too?"
Mardle also noted something in particular. "The delay was when he was throwing for the championship. He was nervous and needed time."
"Eric (Bristow) shouts in someone’s face, that’s typical Eric. (Peter) Manley talks to an opponent whilst they’re throwing, that’s funny. Phil (Taylor) walks off before a final leg, fine…it’s Phil. (Simon) Whitlock leaves the stage for a shit, when you’ve got to go. Dimi stands back for 30 seconds, darts implodes," Mardle concluded.
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Kieran WoodDarts Journalist
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He contributes to DartsNews.com, where he covers professional darts through news, match reports, analysis, and live coverage across the PDC calendar and major tournaments.
A key part of his work is on-site reporting from leading events. Kieran has covered the PDC World Darts Championship in person, reporting daily from the venue and providing first-hand insight from the tournament. During his coverage, he has conducted interviews with leading players including Luke Littler, Luke Humphries, and Gerwyn Price.
He is also one of the leading voices of the English-language Dartsnews Podcast, contributing regular analysis and discussion on developments across the professional darts circuit.
In his reporting, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles when new, verified information becomes available.
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- Not much of a tournament really,is it? Now they've all pulled out,it's open for everyone. I'm sure if you bought tickets,you'd be disappointed. Doesn't that seem to bother the withdrawals? Not at all!!rick6710-09-2026
- Need to see her take part in the womens tour. She'll break the inernet.medinabello08-09-2026
- If he can be bothered? He won't play darts in Germany yet he'll go over and get an award!??rick6702-09-2026
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- I appreciate that littler is a fantastic player,but the top 3 articles are about him. Before he'd thrown a dart in the tournament. Level it out a bit, Taylor and van gerwen soon got disliked as the media could only see them,and nobody else seemed to matterrick6725-08-2026
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