Chris Dobey hit out at the crowd following his defeat against Martin Schindler at the German Darts Grand Prix. The Brit was one of the favourites to secure the victory in Germany, but he was unable to hold his nerve in front of the vocal locals.
Chris Dobey hit out at the crowd following his defeat against Martin Schindler at the German Darts Grand Prix. The Brit was one of the favourites to secure the victory in Germany, but he was unable to hold his nerve in front of the vocal locals.
Following victories over Viktor Tingstrom and Krzysztof Ratajski over the weekend, Dobey headed into the quarter-finals in Munich with plenty of momentum. However, the world No.15 failed to justify being one of the most-fancied stars in the competition.
The 33-year-old was beaten by Schindler on Monday, with the local star hitting tops to secure a 6-4 win and send the crowd into a frenzy, keeping his hopes of winning on home soil alive. Dobey was gracious in defeat but visibly unhappy with the treatment he received on the day.
The Brit was booed, whistled and jeered throughout the contest, and the distracting noise certainly got under his skin. Following his defeat, Dobey took to social media to take aim at the crowd in a furious tweet.
He wrote: “Wow, how they have a nerve to complain when they get booed etc…. in UK. Great game to be involved in, but unfortunately crowd very disrespectful.”
British players have struggled with the heat that they received from German crowds previously, with Luke Humphries – who went on to win the title in Munich – blasting a group of travelling fans at the Paddy Power PDC World Darts Championship during his match against Ricardo Pietreczko.
The world No. 1 came from behind to secure an important win in the third round of the competition, having trailed to the German 3-1 early in the clash. Humphries managed to overcome the boos and whistles to turn the tie on his head and win 4-3, passionately celebrating following the win.
Speaking after the match, he said: “I dare any person at home to experience what I just experienced. I had 99 per cent of the crowd against me. I pooed my pants. I broke my point before the game started and that played on my mind. I played with a different set of darts. It was really tough for me tonight, really hard. I had a section of the crowd over here [on the right] whistling every throw.
“Mentally and physically [it was] the toughest game I’ve ever been a part of. Any major final I’ve played in, that was 10 times worse. I felt like I was in Germany. Incredibly tough. I know it’s all negative but credit to myself because I was down and out but I came back.”