Darts star tries to kill Ally Pally wasp, sprays himself in eyes and nearly busts rating
Darts Star Jurjen van der Velde was a man with a plan on Tuesday evening – but his attempts to kill the Ally Pally wasp spectacularly backfired
Darts star Jurjen van der Velde had a plan to try and stop the infamous Ally Pally wasp on Tuesday evening – by killing it.
Van der Velde, making his debut at the Paddy Power PDC World Darts Championship, arrived on the famous stage with a can of wasp spray. And after his first trip to the oche, he decided it time to waft some around.
The Dutchman sprayed the air, himself, and, inadvertently, his own eyes. Amazingly, he could just about see and took out 120 to win the first leg – although he almost bust his score when his second dart narrowly missed the treble bed.
“I was about to say Van der Velde was getting emotional being on the Ally Pally stage for the first time, but no, he got bug spray in his eyes to keep that pesky wasp away,” one fan joked.
“Walks on to Crazy Nights, arrives on stage with Wasp Spray, accidentally sprays it into his own eyes, and then wins the first leg with a 120 checkout that he almost bust with the second dart. What an arrival to the big stage, Jurjen Van der Velde,” a second shared.
And another added: “Jurjen van der Velde taking a can of wasp spray onto the stage is my favourite thing to happen at the World Championship so far!”
However, the wasp came back with vengeance in the second set and a bee line for the star that had tried to spray it.
Van der Velde had been in tears on the stage as Danny Noppert made his entrance – so emotional was the youngster about his debut.
Hailing from the Netherlands, he comes from a family of farmers who own 180 cows. And whenever he’s back home he’s joked in the past about how he tries to help out.
He said: “At the start of the year I started to live together with my girlfriend but I still work on the farm, milking the cows and driving the tractor.
“How many cows are there? About 180 – there is no particular reason why it’s that number but it fits well. We have around 80 hectares including the fields but 180 cows need space to graze.
“When I milk them, the alarm goes off at 4.15am, which always feels very early. We start by cleaning the boxes [sheds] and around five o’clock we start milking.
“We clean the udders with towels but the actual miking is done by machines. It’s a family business – my grandad started it and my dad took it over.”
