Night Two of the 2025 Premier League proved to be a controversial event last Thursday as whistling and booing interrupted play throughout the night in Glasgow. Russ Bray believes it’s ruining the game and calls for security to get involved now.
In only the second week of the 2025 Premier League Darts, headlines were made for all the wrong reasons.
Luke Littler would lift his first Premier League title of the campaign but this was overshadowed by a night of constant whittling and booing from the crowd.
It started in the first match of the night. Rob Cross was leading Luke Littler 5-1 before mass booing clearly distracted Cross who would go on to lose 6-5.
Gerwyn Price was faced with heavy booing and whistling – though he fought back in typical Iceman style by whistling back at the crowd after hitting a 180 – before the final between Luke Littler and Luke Humphries which had the referee snap at the crowd to “stop whistling”.
HUMPHRIES AHEAD!
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) February 13, 2025
It could be perfect timing from the world number one as he moves 5-4 ahead, and needs to hold throw for back-to-back nightly wins!
📺 https://t.co/CxOorrFXK9#PLDarts25 pic.twitter.com/pEYSDxLPV1
^^ You can hear how distracting it was from the clip and fans took to social media to blast the Glasgow crowd, labelling them ‘embarrassing’ and ‘pathetic’, whilst calling for Glasgow to be banned as a destination going forward.
See more – Crowd labelled ‘embarrassing’ and ‘pathetic’ in Glasgow of Premier League Darts
It was so bad that the PDC then had to release a statement the following day.
PDC Statement: Crowd behaviour 👇 pic.twitter.com/23zKzOxN4F
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) February 14, 2025
This didn’t really address the issue but some influential figures in the game have since spoken out to give their opinion.
Esteemed referee and the ‘voice of darts’ Russ Bray has spoken out on the issue from a refereeing perspective and feels ejections now need to be enforced going forward…
SEE MORE ON DECENT DARTS
👉 Talking points: 2025 Premier League Darts Night 2
👉 Phil Taylor identifies ‘one change’ in Michael van Gerwen’s game that is holding him back
“That’s Now Got to Happen” – Russ Bray on Ejecting Whistlers From Events
Russ Bray has had to deal with almost every issue in the sport from an officiating perspective, and the semi-retired referee feels that referees can’t do much to stop the whistling without further antagonising the crowd.
Speaking to Online Darts, he instead spoke about how security and the venues need to start ejecting the ‘clowns’ responsible.
He said:
“It’s the worst thing in the world, when someone whistles it goes right through you. Literally, right through you.
“I really do not see the point of someone whistling, unless they’ve got a bet on and they don’t want whatever player it is to win, but it’s just spoiling it for everybody.
“What surprises me is that whoever it is that’s whistling is standing alongside somebody, why don’t they say something or just put their hand up and let us know?
“There should be signs up now, anyone that is whistling or disrupting will be thrown out of the auditorium.
“That’s now got to happen. The security side of it has got to get hold of it, pinpoint where it is and throw the people out.”
“It is ruining the game.
“They’re the top boys in the world and they’ve got to come up against some idiot, some clown, someone out for a laugh, just spoiling it for everybody.”
Bray was then asked about his thoughts on how the referee Kirk Bevans handled the situation by shouting to the crowd “stop whistling”, something Luke Littler would state in an interview didn’t help the situation but made it worse.
Bray replied:
“There’s ways of doing that as well. I wouldn’t turn around and say to someone to stop doing what they are doing.
“You turn around and say best of order please. People know what you’re talking about.
“If you turn around like Kirk did and say ladies and gentlemen please don’t whistle, 4,000 people are going to whistle because that’s the mentality of people these days, in that respect.
“There’s no point in us turning around and saying; thank you very much ladies and gentlemen, please have the very best of order and then nothing else is happening behind us.”
It will be interesting to see how this is handled moving forward because if there’s any more instances like last week then darts is going to have a BIG crowd management issue the bigger the sport gets!
You can see his full interview provided by Online Darts below:
If not already, make sure to follow Decent Darts on X or Facebook where we bring you daily darts content including news, quotes and quizzes that you won’t find on the site.