NATHAN ASPINALL has called for five-year bans from darts tournaments for anybody who is caught whistling to try to put off stars.
Whistling is the one thing that annoys darts players the most, even when everybody else in the crowd is cheering loudly or chanting.
There have been several incidents down the years where whistlers have targeted people at the oche and it has influenced the throw.
During this World Darts Championships, German Ricardo Pietreczko claimed there should be increased security to root out the nuisance punters.
Belgian Mike De Decker said when he lost to Kenyan David Munyua in the first round that “booing and whistling shouldn’t be normal or encouraged”.
If someone is identified then security personnel will do their best to kick the culprits out of the arena.
Aspinall, 34, hopes to avoid such a scenario when he plays Dutchman Kevin Doets in round three on Monday.
He told SunSport: “I’ve said in EuroTours, in my on-stage interviews, will you just stop whistling, enjoy the darts, stop being muppets.
“It’s then gone over Instagram and TikTok, saying: ‘Nathan lashes out at the crowd…’
“People will see that but does that encourage them? Because they know they’re winding the players up.
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“You sit in silence, you don’t do anything, it’ll continue. You speak out, you say something, it’ll continue.
“How do you monitor 10,000 people from sticking their fingers in their mouth to whistle?
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“So, what can be done? I think the people that get caught shouldn’t just get kicked out, they should get banned for say five years.
“Something where they’re going to feel the effects of what they’ve done.
“Then, once a few of them start doing it, hopefully they’ll go: ‘I’m absolutely gutted, I can’t go to the darts, I got a five-year ban from whistling, trust me, don’t do it.’
“I bet it might take a couple of years but maybe that could be something.
“A lot of darts games are determined by the crowd. The standard is that close. Missing one dart at double 16 on a 109 could lose you that game.
“And then some k***head whistles. Unless you tape everyone’s mouths shut when they walk in.
“I just think that if you give people bans once they get kicked out then it might change things.”
