The Darts World Championship experienced a moment for the history books when world number one Gerwyn Price suddenly played with ear protection. His conqueror, German darts sensation Gabriel Clemens, is completely unimpressed. Superstar Michael van Gerwen calls for a ban.
“Damn it, I love Gerwyn Price.” … “The world hasn’t seen that yet, hahaha.” … “He plays with things on his head, he really plays with them, I can’t take it anymore.” These sentences were uttered on a memorable evening in the press room of the legendary Alexandra Palace. From ex-players who are experts at the Darts World Cup. From journalists who thought they were in a fever dream when the break after the fourth set in the quarterfinals between Gerwyn Price and Gabriel “Gaga” Clemens ended.
Gerwyn Price, the world number one, darts world champion two years ago, the “Iceman”, he suddenly wears a huge hearing protection on his head, as if he were working the night shift on a construction site or had to guide planes to their parking lot on the tarmac at Heathrow . From the media room, the photographers rush back into the arena to take photos with Price and his earmuffs. hectic breaks out. Nobody wants to be late. Not that Price puts the musicless headphones down after a few tosses.
At this moment, Price is surprisingly 3-1 down against German hope Gabriel Clemens, nicknamed “Gaga”. The Welshman is about to be eliminated in the quarter-finals. And is apparently so annoyed by himself, his performance, his opponent and the fans that he reaches deep into his bag of tricks and pulls out the earmuffs. They make it seem like Price is now listening to music (maybe “Radio Ga Ga”?) or a podcast while playing for the semi-finals and £100,000 in prize money at the world’s most important darts tournament. But that would be forbidden, according to the rules. Hearing protection is allowed. It is also worn by one or the other player. But not like Price did in the fifth set against the “German Giant”.
At first, the measure even seems to be bearing fruit. The first recording with earmuffs makes the hall tremble. “One Huuuuuundred and eighty,” roars cult caller Russ Bray through the West Hall of Alexandra Palace in his famous grating voice. Price only needs twelve darts to win the first leg in round five. Price only needs a measly leg win to verbally mess with the audience. I can’t hear you,” signals the polarizing ex-rugby professional. At that moment, the 37-year-old smelled a rat. The tactic of isolating himself from the outside world and irritating his opponent at the same time seems to be working for Price.
But that’s a completely wrong impression, the strong leg of the “Iceman” becomes a non-starter. From this moment on, Clemens does not lose another leg, the dismantling of the world number one becomes more and more clear. The hearing protection “survives” the game for only a few minutes. After losing the fifth set despite a strong start, Price comes back onstage for the final set without the huge earmuffs. Instead, Price “only” wears small earplugs.
But now, it seems, the Welshman doesn’t care. Price lost the game long ago, Clemens made it into his head. This shows the bickering about hearing protection. And so the German fans in “Ally Pally”, the journalists in the media room, the viewers on the TV screens are just waiting for Clemens to get his first match dart. The time has finally come on the double 4. The first dart lands directly in the outer ring, the game is won, Gabriel Clemens is sensationally in the semi-finals of the 2023 World Darts Championship.
“I know that he wears these things a lot when warming up. But I haven’t seen him with them on stage, so I was a little surprised. But then I just thought to myself, ‘You absolutely have to win this sentence and show it that it’s not the headphones,” said Gabriel Clemens about his opponent’s strange action.
It became clear that the Saarlander was not exactly impressed by the Price campaign. Understandable, after all it seemed like an act of desperation to perhaps find his way back into the game in order to get into Clemens’ head. It seems unlikely that Price only unpacked the hearing protection to block out boos from fans, as he portrayed it. Especially since the fans in “Ally Pally” weren’t as unfair to Price as he described it. In the first sentence, a group of loud fans even came out, cheering on the “Iceman” clearly audibly.
“I thought he would take off the headphones after warming up on stage, but then he just left them on. Well, that’s how it was,” said Clemens in his typically relaxed way. “I can’t even imagine That’s allowed. Caps, for example, aren’t allowed either.”
And yet, at least the rulebook actually speaks for Price on this New Year’s Eve. Clemens will not have cared in the end. Not only has he reached the quarter-finals as the first German in the history of the PDC World Championship, he has also made it clear that he has entered the semi-finals. In the semifinals, Englishman Michael Smith is the next top player waiting for the 39-year-old.
The “Bullyboy” will certainly not wear hearing protection. Even superstar and top favorite Michael van Gerwen thinks nothing of it. “I saw his earmuffs in the training room and I said to him: Gerwyn, you don’t have the balls to wear it on stage. And he did it. Haha.”
The topic dominated the entire press conference after the game of “MvG”, who beat Chris Dobey 5-0 and met Belgian Dimitri Van den Bergh in the second semi-final. “Gerwyn shouldn’t have worn the earmuffs. A player in his class shouldn’t do that,” said van Gerwen, and then followed up. “I bought things like that too. But only to give to my daughter.”
As always, the Dutchman was not stingy with a clear opinion: “I think such earmuffs should not be allowed. A player has never worn them before.”