"Why is he just standing there?": Mike de Decker hits out at silent referee for failing to control whistling during Littler loss

The behavior of some fans during the match between Mike de Decker and Luke Littler was a big blemish on a wonderful night of darts at the Grand Slam of Darts on Thursday night.

The Belgian darter was on his way to a superb win against the 17-year-old Littler, but was thrown off his game by the misbehavior from some fans. Every time De Decker took to the oche, individuals whistled. De Decker failed to silence the crowd for good, and Littler turned the 4-8 deficit into a 10-9 victory.

"You know the crowd is part of it, but the fans were totally unfair here. Of course I have to throw those darts in myself, but it's really a shame,'" De Decker responded afterwards to Viaplay.

Although De Decker did his best to keep his frustrations in check, an accusing finger came to referee Kirk Bevins afterward. "If you say something about it and nothing is done about it.... Then why is he just standing there? That's what he's an referee for, right? If we as darters do something wrong, you hear them right away. But if he won't even use his microphone here to ask for respect.... I don't get that."

When the Belgian was leading 6-4 at the second break, he decided to use the break to ask the referee to say something about it. To Decker's incomprehension, Bevins decided not to do anything about it. "If you just ask him to ask for respect for both darters, suddenly you can't do that. That doesn't go in with me. If he had just said something, it would have been fine. Then if the fans keep going on about it, there's nothing else you can do about it. Then I have to deal with it, but at least it has been said."

Reporter Arjan van der Giessen then asked De Decker if he is going to file a complaint about this with the PDC, but 'The Real Deal' doesn't see that. "You won't get anywhere with that. There's no point, because nothing happens anyway. It's sad that this is how the world works. Apparently this is part and parcel of matches against Luke Littler. He is the poster boy of the PDC. It's a shame, but that's the way it is.''