Darts star Luke Woodhouse mocked the Alexandra Palace crowd after he was booed by fans during his World Championship showdown with Lourence Ilagan. The 36-year-old was in sensational form in the capital as he dispatched his opponent 3-0 in the first round encounter.
Woodhouse, whose best performance at the tournament came in 2020 when he reached the third round, was in action in the second match of the afternoon session on Monday.
And he controlled proceedings to secure his safe passage to the next round of the competition.
Woodhouse was presented with his first opportunity to close out the match after winning the first two sets and sharing the first four legs of the third set with Ilagan.
The star was left with 170, which is referred to as a Big Fish, as he bounded up to the oche to throw. And he hit two triple 20s to leave himself with a shot at the bull to clinch the win.
But, despite the fact he had a huge safety net as his opponent was unable to finish on his next visit to the board, Woodhouse turned down the bullseye and instead threw the dart at 18 to leave himself with 32 to finish. And the crowd were unable to hide their frustration as they booed loudly.
Woodhouse had set himself up nicely to finish his opponent off during his next visit and clearly wasn’t ready to take the crowd’s feedback on the chin.
And as he walked away from the oche, he jokingly widened his eyes, moved his head from side to side and mimicked the booing.
He then returned to the board and threw a 16 followed by a double eight to seal the win.
Woodhouse, who is ranked at No. 35 in the world, will face Mike de Decker in the second round on Tuesday. But ahead of the World Championship he claimed he felt more pressure playing in the local pub than he does playing on the biggest stage of all.
“Everyone knows that it’s the biggest tournament of the year,” he told the BBC. “It’s the one that can change your life if you have a good run in it. I think being at Christmas as well… it’s all sold out and it’s just a really special tournament.
“I probably feel more pressure playing in a pub than I do on the stage at the World Championships, to be honest. Everyone expects you to play well [at the pub] and sometimes it doesn’t happen.
“For some reason having 10, 15 people watching you on one board is more nerve-wracking than having thousands behind you watching you.”
