The World Darts Championship stage has been plagued by an unexpected adversary: wasps, prompting one competitor to take matters into his own hands. <\/p>\n
Ahead of his first-round match on Tuesday, Jurjen van der Velde caused a stir at Alexandra Palace in north London. The Dutchman pulled the insect repellent from his pocket, liberally spraying the air and himself, much to the crowd’s amusement.<\/p>\n
Later, Van der Velde was observed wiping his face with a cloth. Tournament organizer, the Professional Darts Corporation, later questioned on X whether the player was “emotional or has sprayed bug spray in his eyes.”<\/p>\n
Van der Velde went on to lose 3-1 to Danny Noppert. (Bradley Collyer\/PA Wire)In all-Dutch match, Van der Velde went on to lose 3-1 to Danny Noppert.<\/p>\n
Wasps have been interfering with players during the opening days of the worlds, affecting their throws and post-match interviews. One player, Nitin Kumar, even struck a wasp with his dart mid-flight on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The World Darts Championship stage has been plagued by an unexpected adversary: wasps, prompting one competitor to take matters into his own hands. Ahead of his first-round match on Tuesday, Jurjen van der Velde caused a stir at Alexandra Palace in north London. The Dutchman pulled the insect repellent from his pocket, liberally spraying the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n