VIDEO: Referee blunders at Players Championship tournament and has to restart entire leg

A remarkable officiating blunder occurred during Monday’s opening Players Championship event of the season. The incident happened in the match between William O'Connor and Mario Vandenbogaerde in the second round of Players Championship 1.

O’Connor was in action on Monday at the first Pro Tour event of the season in Hildesheim. After a win over Yorick Hofkens in the opening round, a clash with Belgian Mario Vandenbogaerde awaited in the last 64. The match began evenly, with a break traded in the first two legs, quickly making it 1-1.

Vandenbogaerde recovered in the second leg from the loss of throw by pinning double eight. Shortly after, however, came a moment rarely seen on the Pro Tour. O’Connor opened the third leg with a score of 44, but when his opponent returned to the oche, the referee realized a mistake had been made.

It turned out that it should have been Vandenbogaerde, not O’Connor, to start the leg. After a brief pause, it was decided to void the leg entirely and restart it with the scores wiped. In effect, the match was briefly rolled back.

PDC commentator Abigail Davies reacted with visible surprise to the situation. “Have you ever seen this because I've never seen the like of this,” she noted on the broadcast. Former pro Paul Nicholson agreed: “I can't say that I've seen that before on the stream anyway. Seen it in the old days when we had the pen and the board on the wall. But the leg has been scrubbed."

O'Connor stayed composed and seized control immediately after the restart. He reeled off five straight legs and sealed the match convincingly with a 6-1 win.