James Wade let out a huge fart on the oche to leave rival Peter Wright and referee Owen Binks reeling. Wright was forced to leave the stage after Wade’s bowels disrupted their Players Championship 17 match on Tuesday evening.
Wade defeated Wright 6-5 in a gripping encounter but then farted on stage in a repeat of his antics from a year ago. The smell was clearly bad as Snakebite stepped back far away from the oche. Wade joked: “It slipped out. Give it a second.”
Binks was forced to remind both players that the match was being streamed live online. He said: “Oh boy, okay then… This is a streamed match, guys.”
Wright attempted to see the funny side but was clearly disturbed. The 55-year-old felt that the fart needed far longer than a second to dissipate and remained away from the oche for several moments. Wade attempted to persuade him back, insisting: “Go ahead. Do you want nine more arrows?”
It is not the first time that Wade has let rip on stage. He appeared to do so during a Players Championship defeat against Callan Rydz last year. The 42-year-old said afterwards: “I feel I must address a situation following my run to the semi-finals of PC22 today. Footage has emerged of me doing what appears to be a ‘shart’ at the end of one of my matches.
“It was actually the velcro on my new trainers. I now consider this matter put to bed as I don’t wish to talk about it again.”
Rydz went on to face Gary Anderson, who has had his own farting scandal. In 2018, the Scot was accused of breaking wind by Wesley Harms at the Grand Slam of Darts. However, he denied doing so.
Anderson said: “If the boy thinks I’ve farted he’s 1,010 per cent wrong. I had a bad stomach once on stage before and admitted it, so I’m not going to lie about farting on stage.
“Every time I walked past there was a waft of rotten eggs so that’s why I was thinking it was him. It was bad. It was a stink, then he started to play better and I thought he must have needed to get some wind out. If somebody has done that they need to see a doctor.”