DAVE CHISNALL survived having TWO Ally Pally wasps on his darts shirt – as he delivered a stinging blow to Fallon Sherrock’s World Championships hopes.
Chizzy, 45, quietened the crowd as he knocked out the Queen of the Palace in a 3-0 28-minute borefest.
Yet as he was throwing for the game he unknowingly had two yellow-and-black striped insects sitting on his yellow and black shirt.
One was resting on his collar, the other was nestled on the top of his shoulder.
Goodness knows how he did not realise they were on him as he was throwing in the spot’s biggest event.
And thank goodness he was not stung either as it could have been a nasty episode.
Wasps have become a regular occurrence at the tournament since it started a week ago and thankfully, so far, nobody has reported getting attacked.
Nearly every day there is a sight of them buzzing around but they have not gone for anybody while they are competing for the £1million top prize.
It was a funny moment in an otherwise poor contest where Chisnall – in his 15 World Championship campaign – averaged 89.66 and Sherrock averaged just 84.83 across the three sets.
Sherrock – who made a cheeky gesture during the game – can only blame herself for how she plays, nailing just three of her 23 double attempts.
BEST ONLINE CASINOS – TOP SITES IN THE UK
The 31-year-old did win the opening leg with a 19-darter but then she bust her score of 125 in the next leg, hitting bull, 15 and treble 20 by mistake.
Her opponent from St Helens took advantage of that error by taking out 104 to level up and from that moment on, there was not much hope for Sherrock to cause another upset.
Set one took 11 minutes and the highest three-dart average at that point was 77.53 by Chisnall.
To clinch set two, Chinsall took out a 160 checkout and there was not really much turning back at that point.
No.21 seed Chisnall now plays German Ricardo Pietreczko in round two at the end of a year in which he has struggled.
He said: “I’m buzzing with that. That was a massive win. Only for her not hitting her doubles that would have been a lot different.
“She scored well. I hit the shots at the right time. My doubles were good. Fair play to the crowd there was mutual respect.
“I wasn’t nervous. I know how she can play. It’s one of them, you get through and work on the next round.
On the wasp, Dave Chisnall said: “I went back on the second break and one of the security guards came over to me and he said, come here, he flicked it off my neck.
“As I turned around there was one on my arm and he flicked that one off. It didn’t make a difference.”
Sherrock, a former hairdresser, will have to wait another year before she can attempt to find a win on the Ally Pally stage where she made her name in December 2019.
As it stands, no other woman has managed to win on that oche and the barren spell goes on, unless Gemma Hayter or Beau Greaves can change that on Friday.
