Fans say World Darts Championship draw is ‘fixed’ as Sky Sports host is forced to apologise live on air for ‘mistake’
DARTS fans labelled the world championship draw “fixed” after a mistake during the first and second-round draw.
The 2023/24 PDC World Darts Championship gets underway at Alexandra Palace on December 15.
YouTube @Sky Sports dartsHost Emma Paton, right, realised the error midway through drawing Ricky Evans and Simon Adams[/caption]
YouTube @Sky Sports dartsPaton made the correction so that Daryl Gurney would play Steve Beaton or Wessel Nijman instead[/caption]
On Monday evening, the draw was made to determine the first-round match-ups and which seeded players the winners will play in the second round.
But there was some confusion during proceedings as the first two PDC world champions – Dennis Priestley and Phil Taylor – pulled out the balls.
Priestley pulled out Ricky Evans as a one half of a first round tie after Sky Sports presenter Emma Paton had stated the winner would play 27th seed Daryl Gurney.
But before Taylor drew Simon Adams as Evans’ opponent, Paton corrected herself to reveal the winner would actually face sixth seed Nathan Aspinall.
She said: “Oh, actually, sorry, that was Nathan Aspinall, the number six seed. So he will be in that match-up we were just talking about there [Evans vs Adams].”
Paton then added: “That wasn’t Daryl Gurney, just to confirm. That was Nathan Aspinall, the World Matchplay Champion.”
As Priestley then drew the next name, Paton said: “So, let’s do Daryl Gurney now, two-time quarter-finalist.”
The presenter then joked: “I’ll blame you for that, Dennis.”
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PDC World Darts Championship draw
Here is the full draw:
(1) Michael Smith vs Kevin Doets or Stowe Buntz
(32) Madars Razma vs Mike De Decker or Dragutin Horvat
(16) Ross Smith vs Niels Zonneveld or Darren Webster
(17) Chris Dobey vs William O’Connor or Bhav Patel
(8) Rob Cross vs Mario Vandenbogaerde or Thibault Tricole
(25) Jose de Sousa vs Richie Edhouse or Jeffrey De Graaf
(9) Jonny Clayton vs Steve Lennon or Owen Bates
(24) Krzysztof Ratajski vs Jamie Hughes or David Cameron
(4) Peter Wright vs Jim Williams or Norman Madhoo
(29) Raymond van Barneveld vs Radek Szaganski or Marko Kantele
(13) James Wade vs Matt Campbell or Lourence Ilagan
(20) Andrew Gilding vs Christian Kist or Luke Littler
(5) Gerwyn Price vs Connor Scutt or Krzysztof Kciuk
(28) Brendan Dolan vs Mickey Mansell or Xiaochen Zong
(12) Dirk van Duijvenbode vs Keegan Brown or Boris Krcmar
(21) Gary Anderson vs Simon Whitlock or Paolo Nebrida
(2) Michael van Gerwen vs Keane Barry or Reynaldo Rivera
(31) Kim Huybrechts vs Richard Veenstra or Ben Robb
(15) Dimitri van den Bergh vs Dylan Slevin or Florian Hempel
(18) Stephen Bunting vs Ryan Joyce or Alex Spellman
(7) Danny Noppert vs Scott Williams or Haruki Muramatsu
(26) Martin Schindler vs Jermaine Wattimena or Fallon Sherrock
(10) Damon Heta vs Martin Lukeman or Haupai Puha
(23) Josh Rock vs Luke Woodhouse or Berry Van Peer
(3) Luke Humphries vs Lee Evans or Sandro Eric Sosing
(30) Callan Rydz vs Ricardo Pietreczko or Mikuru Suzuki
(14) Joe Cullen vs Jules van Dongen or Darren Penhall
(19) Ryan Searle vs Ian White or Tomoya Goto
(6) Nathan Aspinall vs Ricky Evans or Simon Adams
(27) Daryl Gurney vs Steve Beaton or Wessel Nijman
(11) Dave Chisnall vs Cameron Menzies or Rusty-Jake Rodriguez
(22) Gabriel Clemens vs Gian Van Veen or Man Lok Leung
Nathan Aspinall was handed the winner of a tie initially drawn for Daryl GurneyPA
It was then revealed that Gurney will play either Steve Beaton or Wessek Nijman in the second round.
Paton went on to acknowledge the error at the end of the draw as she admitted to “one small mistake”.
But fans following the live stream on YouTube were unimpressed by the error as they labelled the draw “fixed”.
Meanwhile, defending champion Michael Smith has been drawn against either Kevin Doets or Stowe Buntz.
Three-time winner Michael van Gerwen, who lost the 2023 final in January, will face Keane Barry or Reynaldo Rivera.
Gurney has reached two quarter finals but never reached the last four at the world championshipsGetty – Contributor
