Gerwyn Price claims he may never play in the PDC World Darts Championship again after donning ear defenders in an effort to drown out jeers during his quarter-final loss to Gabriel Clemens.
The world number one was thrashed 5-1 by the German underdog, with Price – as has become customary – jeered and taunted throughout the contest by a rowdy Ally Pally crowd.
At 3-1 down, the Welshman came out for the fifth set wearing comically large ear defenders and immediately hit a 180 on his first visit to the oche, ironically cupping his hands to his now muffled ears.
However, he would lose the set 3-1 and promptly ditched the ear defenders in the next interval and switched to smaller earplugs – though they had little effect as Clemens claimed the sixth set 3-0 to wrap up the 5-1 win and progress to the semi-final.
Price has long been something of a pantomime villain, particularly at Alexandra Palace, but clearly felt the goading and booing from the crowd became too extreme on Sunday night and suggested he may not return to the World Darts Championship next year.
Writing on Instagram after the defeat, Price said: ‘So frustrating. You play all year round preparing for this one tournament.
‘So gutted I wasn’t let play [sic] but good luck everyone left in. Not sure I will ever play in this event again.’
Last week, Price revealed that he had considered wearing ear defenders in his win over Raymond van Barneveld after the crowd turned against him and has been practicing in them at home.
‘If Raymond had been in the match better and the crowd had turned against me more, I probably still would have done it. But now it wasn’t necessary,’ he said.
‘And by the way, it’s not just about headphones, but then I put in earplugs. I first tried it at home during the Christmas break just with earplugs in, but then I still heard too much. With the headphones in, I couldn’t even hear my kids anymore; then I knew it would work well.’
Price spoke about his difficult relationship with darts crowds in an interview with Metro.co.uk last year and had encouraged fans to be a bit more respectful, particularly at crucial moments.
‘I think they’d know what I’d say, I’d rather them not boo and just enjoy the darts,’ Price told Metro.co.uk when asked if he had a message for fans who might fancy booing him.
‘I don’t mind pantomime boos at the start or the middle of games, but it’s at the crucial points. I can’t control what they do, but maybe just chill out a little bit and enjoy the darts.’
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