Welsh darter Gillet accuses Dutchman Brouwer of cheating at Dutch Open Darts after incident with chalker

The match between Mike Gillet and Youri Brouwer in the last 512 of the Dutch Open in Assen had a remarkable ending. The game was won 3-1 by the Dutchman, but his Welsh opponent believes it should have been 2-2 after four legs.

According to Gillet, the story started before the match. A friend of Brouwer offered to chalk (write down scores), to which Gillet eventually agreed. According to the Welshman, the chalker was then cheering Brouwer's good scores every time at the start of the match. Gillet indicated this problem, after which this also stopped happening.

In the last leg of the match, Gillet said he had 76 left. He checked out in three darts via double 4, but according to him, the chalker had by now adjusted on the scoreboard that he had 74 left instead of 76. So the result was that Gillet had bust.

"He did a bad job as it was clearly visible that 76 was still the original score, despite his argument that the number 6 is actually a 4. I left my darts in the board, looked back at my opponent who said I’ve bust and to collect my darts," said Gillet on Facebook.

"We were at a stalemate, but with no support from those watching as friends were themselves either playing or getting ready to play, I had to retrieve the darts."

As a result, Brouwer hit the double the very next throw to win the match. "I confronted two officials straight away who said that the chalker is the referee (my fault from the start of the match) and to gather anyone that seen the incident, however, nobody I knew or recognise watched them game so I couldn’t do that. Shortly after I seen the opponent and chalker together in the vip room, I confronted them to show that I was angry with what happened as felt cheated. They both walked off."

Opponent Brouwer, however, had a different version of events. ''He was on 104 and then threw 34 and thus had 70 left. He read 76 but it wasn't and bust. I would rather lose than win unfairly,'' Brouwer told Dartsnews about the remarkable incident.