The end of the Premier League Darts in Aberdeen sadly left the proverbial sour taste in the mouth.
If you type “Aberdeen crowd” into Twitter, you get a flavour of the reaction to some of the behaviours which overshadowed Thursday night’s action.
Jonny Clayton, one of the nicest guys on the circuit, had the unfortunate task of facing not one but two Scottish players and then Michael van Gerwen, who became the de-facto home favourite after Gary Anderson and Peter Wright were eliminated.
He had taken a bit of stick during his games against Anderson and Wright but still came out on top. But the whistling in particular got more egregious towards the end of a pulsating final against MVG.
Afterwards, Clayton was obviously pleased with his night’s work but was left disappointed by what he had to put up with against van Gerwen.
Most players will say they can handle boos, because it is a fairly low-pitched constant tone. It can be tuned out. But when there are short, sharp, high-pitched whistles directed at you when you are trying to hit key doubles, they resonate.
It has to be stressed that this is not just an Aberdeen problem. It is not the first time we have seen this sort of thing from a darts crowd. But the fact it is what most people are talking about after the Premier League Darts has come to Aberdeen is not a good thing.
The Granite City has been home to some memorable moments in the Premier League. You had Raymond van Barneveld’s nine-darter in 2010 and three years ago, John Henderson’s walk-on and subsequent draw against van Gerwen. The crowd have been treated to some of the world’s best players and some superb games.
The darts switched from the Exhibition Centre to P&J Live in 2020 and there was praise behind-the-scenes on Thursday night for the venue. It is a place that can cater for big occasions.
Some of the more hyperbolic reactions online called for the PDC to avoid Aberdeen in future, which is clearly way over the top. The city has proven its worth on the circuit. But unfortunately Thursday may linger in the memories for some.
It wasn’t to be in the final but more points on the table. Well done to @JonnyClay9 at the end. At the end I annoyed about something else, nothing to do with the fans. The atmosphere was brilliant in Aberdeen this evening thank you Scotland 💚. Now for a weekend with my family 😊 pic.twitter.com/LRigyBU5Vu
— Michael Van Gerwen (@MvG180) April 21, 2022
We saw the more boorish side of darts crowds at the World Championships in December. The “Scotland get battered” chant was a tiresome, unimaginative feature of the tournament, with Willie Borland, Alan Soutar, Gary Anderson and even eventual champion Peter Wright on the receiving end.
Gerwyn Price takes a barrel-load of flak wherever he goes and to a certain extent, he revels in the animosity. But it goes beyond “banter”, if you want to call it that, and Price was understandably angry after the treatment he received during his defeat to Michael Smith at Ally Pally.
It takes a lot to fathom the mentality of paying good money to watch a live experience and then actively spending your time trying to make it worse. But that is exactly what this kind of interaction is doing.
There is an element of football crowds among the live audiences nowadays, from the beer-throwing to disrespectful chants. The difficult question is how do you change it?
Stopping the match in question, when whistling occurs, would be something worth trying. It may also prompt others in the crowd, who are not responsible for it, to call out anyone near them who is.
There will be an argument that those who pay their money have earned the right to interact how they please. There is a grain of truth in that but when excessive boozing time is factored in, all decency and logic goes out of the window.
Ultimately we came away from Thursday night talking about something we did not want to. We should have been talking about how Clayton and van Gerwen, the two most in-form players on the planet at the moment, are delivering spectacular darts week after week.
Something has to change.
