Mike de Decker lashes out at the silent referee for not controlling the whistle during Littler's loss

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

The Belgian darts player was on his way to a brilliant victory against 17-year-old Littler, but was thrown out of his game due to misconduct by some fans. Every time De Decker entered the oche, individuals whistled. De Decker failed to silence the crowd for good and Littler turned a 4-8 deficit into a 10-9 victory.

“You know that the audience is part of it, but the fans were completely unfair here. Of course I have to throw those darts in myself, but it’s a real shame,” De Decker responded to Viaplay afterwards.

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Although De Decker did his best to keep his frustrations under control, an accusing finger was pointed at referee Kirk Bevins afterwards. “If you say something about it and nothing is done about it… Why is he just standing there? That’s what he is a referee for, right? If we as darts players do something wrong, you will hear about it immediately. But if he won’t even be here using his microphone to ask for respect. I don’t understand that.’

When the Belgian led 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 dart players, then that is suddenly no longer possible. That doesn’t suit me. If he had just said something, it would have been fine. If the fans then keep going on about it, There’s nothing you can do about it. Then I have to deal with it, but at least it’s said.”

Reporter Arjan van der Giessen then asked De Decker whether he would file a complaint about this with the PDC, but ‘The Real Deal’ did not like that. “That won’t get you anywhere. There’s no point, because nothing happens anyway. It’s sad that the world works this way. Apparently this is part of matches against Luke Littler. He is the poster boy of the PDC. It’s a shame, but that’s how it is.”