It’s the most wonderful time of the year – unless you’re the Ally Pally table getting peppered with uppercuts from a Scotsman who has completely lost his head.
Cameron Menzies’ violent blood-soaked meltdown on stage after losing to a 20-year-old debutant in the World Darts Championship – and also included him trying to burn his hand on a gigantic sparkler – might just be the most extraordinary sporting moment of the year.
But fear not, Cameron. While your jaw-dropping and now viral on-stage outburst became instant darting infamy, you are not alone.
There are plenty of tungsten titans, including some greats of the game, who are also in this club.
High-profile strops, post-match threats, an awkward TV studio row and the incredibly serious allegation of… on stage farting – they all feature in the ridiculous annals of the arrows.
Here, Daily Mail Sport takes a flick through the history books to find the maddest, baddest moments in darts.
‘I want to hurt him in his face’
A pumped-up James Wade took to the mic after beating Seigo Asada in 2018 before delivering an extraordinary tirade, saying he’d won it for the UK and wanted to ‘hurt’ his opponent.
‘I dug in deep there. It’s a magnificent feeling. I could have easily lost that. I’ve done it for my son, for my country, so it’s good,’ he told Sky Sports at the time.
‘I kept giving it to him, I wanted to hurt him, I wanted to really hurt him in his face. It wasn’t a great game but I wanted to hurt him and I wanted to progress. That’s for my son, and also for the UK.’
A stunned Wayne Mardle on commentary called Wade ‘thuggish’, saying: ‘Does he mean he wanted to punch him in his face? What does he mean? I’m absolutely lost for words.
‘That’s just not on. The intimidation, overly aggressive, I hope he wakes up in the morning and thinks, “I’ve made a mistake there”.
‘He can’t think that’s right and no one watching it can think it’s right. That’s thuggish behaviour, there’s no place in darts for that.’
Wade later apologised and said he’d had a ‘hypomania episode’ and was upset by his actions. He ended up being investigated and fined £5000.
Who’s in charge, me or the devil?
Positive ‘self-talk’ is encouraged in sportsmen but this was an insane bit of chat from ‘The Count’, Ted Hankey.
During a match against fellow ex-BDO darts world champion John Walton, Hankey was heard on the mic chuntering to himself.
Footage which later went viral showed him uttering the lines: ‘Do I fancy double 12 or double eight? Who’s in charge, me or the devil?
‘I think I’m in charge. Fat nine, double eight, shake his hand. Just like that.
‘Come on you ****, f***ing, you ****.’ He missed and turned to the camera with arms outstretched.
In 2022, Hankey was jailed for two years for a sexual assault caught on camera.
Chester Crown Court heard that the father-of-three pinned down a young victim who was between 16 and 18.
The judge said: ‘The nature of what you did, the fact that you pinned her down, that air of entitlement… You treated her as an object for your own disgusting and deviant sexual desires.
‘Your self-pity about the loss of status and ability to earn money – I’m sure you will never play darts again on television.’
The Lloyd punch
Menzies isn’t the first darts player to throw punches by the oche. Colin Lloyd’s frustration at the 2011 World Darts Championship built up and up as he threw away a two-set lead.
After a visit of just 55, Lloyd walked up to collect his darts and the red mist descended.
He slammed the fist of his throwing hand into the board and cut his knuckle on the sharp wire.
A close-up also showed bruising but his moment of madness did appear to get the anguish out of his system and Lloyd went on to win the match.
Afterwards, he said: ‘I’m disappointed in myself, but at the end of the day the PDC and Sky want you to show your emotions. I was showing my true emotions up there.
‘I showed my emotions badly, but frustration kicks in sometimes. It’s happened to me so many times in this tournament. The amount of times I’ve let people off and I thought to myself, “not again”. Then I threw that dart and, before I knew it, I’d gone “bang” and hit the board.
‘The whole place shook and the crowd started booing me. I’d like to think that when it comes to sport you want to see people showing their emotions.’
Fart-gate
After Wesley Harms was hammered by Gary Anderson in a their Grand Slam of Darts clash in 2018, the Dutchman accused his opponent of stinking him out.
He told Dutch TV station RTL7L: ‘It’ll take me two nights to lose this smell from my nose.’
Anderson’s hilariously sincere and irritated response when he heard was: ‘If the boy thinks I’ve farted he’s 1,010% wrong.’
That’s a suspiciously high percentage and falls into the ‘whoever denied it supplied it category’.
PDC chairman Barry Hearn joked: ‘We’ve got to get to the bottom of this.
‘On a slightly more serious note, this is a top-level competition involving highly skilled sportsmen – so we have no intention of renaming the event the ‘Grand Slam of Farts’ as some have suggested.’
RIP to the Ally Pally wasp?
Pantomime season needs a villain and the Ally Pally wasp had been terrorising players this year until meeting a grim fate.
Luke Littler ducked and dived away from the insect during his first-round post-match interview.
Luke Humphries flicked it off his chest and the angry Apocrita was later seen buzzing around Ross Smith during his showdown with Andreas Harrysson.
The wasp – now with more than 1000 followers on a dedicated Instagram account – then appeared to be impaled by one of Nitin Kumar’s darts.
Slow motion of the Indian player’s throw showed it connecting with the wasp a foot or so from the oche.
It send the insect down. A glancing blow or direct hit? Fans are fearing the worst.
‘I can’t speak!’
There’s room for a bit of actual sporting excellence in this list.
The greatest leg of darts in history came between Michael van Gerwen and Michael Smith in the 2023 World Darts Championship final.
The Ally Pally crowd were electrified, with both men hitting 180s in their first two visits and the nine-darter was on the cards.
Van Gerwen missed with his final dart but Smith then stepped up, hit treble 20, treble 19 and finished with double 12 – sending the arena into pandemonium.
Those watching on TV saw the spell-binding action accompanied by a magical bit of commentary from Wayne Mardle.
He roared: ‘One man misses, does the other man get? I have never seen the like!
‘Come on Bully Boy. Yes! Double 12…That is the most amazing leg of darts you will ever see in your life. I can’t speak, I can’t speak!’
Stroppy Adrian Lewis and floorboard drama
Lewis has been involved in a handful of emotional outbursts down the years and stormed out of his match with Peter Manley in 2006.
Known for his gamesmanship, Manley was accused of muttering behind Lewis and trying to sneakily put him off.
It worked a treat and Lewis exchanged words with his rival before throwing his arms up in the air and storming off stage in a huff.
He eventually returned but went on to lose the match and Manley later said: ‘At the time Sid Waddell actually said and called it cheating. He was basically doing things behind me and denied it and I just got on with the game but he wouldn’t leave it.
‘The next thing I know he’s walking off. We both got fined, but I ended up with £50,000 in the bank so I was alright at the time. I’m happy to admit if I played up, but that wasn’t playing up, that was get on with the game.’
Six years later, Lewis was involved in another heated row with Wade… over a floorboard.
Wade accused Lewis of putting him off but the impassioned defence included Lewis stomping around on the red carpet on stage, pointing to the rogue bit of flooring and emotionally dragging the match referee to the same spot.
Another chapter in Lewis’ argumentative history was during an intense match with Peter ‘Snakebite’ Wright in 2021.
Again there was a supposedly creaky floorboard involved.
Lewis accused Wright of taking him out of his rhythm by pointing out the floorboard, which the Englishman thought was fine.
Lewis explained: ‘He said to me there was a loose floorboard and I found it! So my response to him was: “You took me out my rhythm, you had a game plan, and as world number two, it’s disgraceful and you’re nothing but a cheat”.
‘He knew what he was doing, as soon as I went 3-1 up he started muttering things and shaking his head at me which put me in a situation that made me feel uncomfortable.’
When it was pointed out to Lewis that he is the common denominator in all of these confrontations, he bit back: ‘Trouble does seem to follow me around, I can’t deny it, but it’s only because I’m a genuine person who wears my heart on my sleeve and people try to take advantage of that. I will always speak my mind!’
Phil Taylor’s awkward TV spat
After winning a match in the 2017 World Championship, Sky Sports brought the darts icon up to their studio in Alexandra Palace.
Mardle posed a question about what was different between his opponents so far in the tournament and Taylor, who has a rivalry with Mardle in the pundit’s playing days, was infuriated.
It made for compelling viewing but there was a skin-crawling awkwardness about the confrontation.
Taylor pointed at Mardle and said: ‘Of all people, you shouldn’t ask me a question like that, because you’re going to put me in the s*** there.
‘No, I’m going to say that because you have, you know what Kevin Painter is like. No, no, no, you’ve asked me a question and you’re taking the mickey out of me.
‘Forget the difference there, you’ve asked me why the composure against Kevin Painter, you know what he’s like, you know what he does, his antics, whether Kevin says he does or he doesn’t.
‘He didn’t put me off, I won 4-0.’
Gerwyn Price’s ‘ridiculous’ antics
The posturing aggression of the former rugby player has wound up plenty of opponents and turned him into the pantomime villain with fans.
The worst example of Price’s over-the-top celebrations came against Simon Whitlock in the 2018 Grand Slam of Darts when he was warned by the referee.
His wild celebrations at making it 10-10 in sets sparked a back-and-forth with Whitlock and drew an unprecedented number of fan complaints.
In the next round against Gary Anderson, Price repeated the behaviour, leading Mardle to say: ‘It was brewing. It got beyond a darts match. It got ridiculous in the end. You shouldn’t be touching other players. You shouldn’t be backing in, pushing. Gerwyn Price pushes the buttons of other players – that is a fact.’
He actions led to a massive £21,500 fine by the DRA and turned fans against him.
Price was then repeatedly booed loudly at events and famously responded by playing while wearing noise-cancelling headphones to block out the noise.
At the time, he said: ‘By the way, it’s not just about headphones, but then I put in earplugs. I first tried it at home during the Christmas break just with earplugs in, but then I still heard too much. With the headphones in, I couldn’t even hear my kids anymore; then I knew it would work well.’
The comically oversized ear defenders were then banned.
