World No. 1 Gerwyn Price’s strange attempts to drown out the noisy Alexandra Palace audience by wearing earplugs backfired as he was eliminated from the PDC world championships and stated that he may never play the event again.
The 37-year-old Welshman was trailing Gabriel Clemens 3-1 in their quarterfinal round when he donned the item in an apparent effort to muffle off-stage noise.
However, this did not prevent him from losing the fifth set, and when he returned wearing earplugs that were less bulky and with which he had presumably practiced, Clemens won 5-1 to become the first German to reach the semifinals.
Price told after his loss when asked about the earplugs, “I played my game and just focused on my game.”
Later, he remarked on his Instagram story, “It’s stressful to play the entire year in preparation for one tournament. So disappointed that I wasn’t allowed to play, but best of luck to those that were. I doubt I will ever compete in this tournament again.”
Three-time runner-up in the world championship, Wayne Mardle, stated that Price’s acts demonstrated fragility. “The difficulty with Price is that he had his earplugs with him before this game, and he was considering using them,” he told.
“It demonstrates a degree of fragility. I understand why he did it; he wanted to put up a show.”
Price has been involved in numerous controversies over the championships. During his triumph over José de Sousa, he made a gesture that could have been interpreted as disrespectful to disabled persons.
Michael van Gerwen’s pursuit of a fourth world title remains on track after he defeated Chris Dobey 5-0 to advance to the semi-finals and face Dimitri Van den Bergh, who became the first Belgian to reach this stage by defeating Johnny Clayton 5-3 earlier in the day.
Michael Smith, the runner-up in last year’s final, defeated Stephen Bunting by the same score and will face Clemens on Monday.
