Darts referee Kirk Bevins had to urge the crowd to stop whistling during Luke Littler’s Winmau Masters opener.
Littler was playing his curtain-raising match of the first ranking event of the year against Belgian qualifier Andy Baetens.
PDCLittler’s match was marred by whistling which referee Bevins put to a halt[/caption]
The unique tournament, which is being played in a new quickfire format, saw thousands of fans fill the Milton Keynes venue to the rafters.
As accustomed in darts tournaments now, fans got very involved with the tungsten action, as they roared on the new world champion.
But one got too involved from the crowd and began repetitively whistling when both Littler and Baetens stepped up to take their respective throws.
It was a crucial moment of the match in the final set with ‘The Nuke’ looking to seal the deal and round off his 2-0 lead in style.
And Bevins wasn’t best impressed with the fan’s bizarre need to distract the players and issued a warning.
He intervened between throws and shouted: “Stop whistling, thank you.”
ITV commentator John Rawling was left furious with the fans and added: “What sort of a moron comes along to a big darts event and starts whistling?”
Littler played down the behaviour of the fan putting him off, when addressing it after the match.
He said: “It was just the fans doing it to themselves. They were getting people to join in.
“It wasn’t aimed at us players. I just had to get on with it and I got the job done.”
PDCLittler still was rampant in a quickfire victory over Baetens[/caption]
Fans are urged to be respectful for players, but often now become involved when the players are looking to hit doubles, land a maximum 180 score, or edge closer to a nine-dart finish.
Bevin has been notorious in the past for losing his temper with the crowd, and has always done his utmost to protect the players interests at the oche.
There has been incidents where the crowd has distracted the players, including most recently Nathan Aspinall, who stopped and watched a fan down a pint during his World Championship match in December.
Gerwyn Price is often subject to fans trying to distract him during his throw, and has regularly lashed out at crowd behaviour.
Nonetheless it didn’t distract Littler from yet another dominant win as he cruised to a 3-0 whitewash.
The teenage prodigy averaged 104.33 in a routine night with the arrows, setting up a mouth-watering second round clash with James Wade.
It took the new world champion just 10 minutes and 45 seconds in the lightning quick new set play to clinch the victory.
He was once again delighted to be back underway, but was reluctant to name himself as the world’s best player despite his continued success.
Littler added: “I’ve had a few days at home to reflect [on World Championship win], but yeah, I wouldn’t say it’s really sank in yet.
“I know the trophy’s there at home. This is the busy schedule that starts now.
“Yeah, it’s definitely different. Especially in Bahrain when it happened for the first time, but for it to happen in the UK for the first time and get the first win at the World Masters.
“It’s a big tournament and it’s a big thing.”
“The only difference is a world champion. Everyone would probably say there is pressure on me, but I’ve really enjoyed tonight so I’ll just go into the next one with the same mindset.”
“I never say I am, but maybe I should. If you win the world championship you are the best.”