Grand Slam of Darts Day 6
Poor Old Merv
There will be those who will believe that King got his comeuppance, what goes around comes around, after narrowly losing out to James Wade last night in a thriller in Wolverhampton. Does `Merv` deserve the bad press and ridicule he has received this week? To try and make a case for the feisty man you will have to put aside one of the magic ingredients that combines with several others that help to create the huge popularity darts enjoys, sentiment. Let us set aside the fact `Hendo` is a charming, likeable, `big lad` (he is all three) and put away the reputation that Merv has for being a robust opponent, and a player who is readily linked to controversy on the oche.The facts of the matter are King believed Henderson was playing outside of the rules or laws of a darts match. King was involved in a match that carried a prize of a large sum of money to the winner and the chance to move forward to the final where prestige, a trophy and a one hundred thousand pound cheque was available. Should he have given a single thought to what the press or darts fans would think about him trying to communicate his fears to the referee? Look at footballers, they scrap and argue over a throw-in! So should he have been considering his PR? No he shouldn`t, his priority has to be to protect his own interests.
King did the right thing, he asked the referee to intervene which he didn`t do. Merv then took the matter into his own hands which is where what could of been a straightforward matter to sort out with a swift intervention from the referee, wnet awry and resulted in King `bashing`, again. Should we really be adding another charge to Merv`s list of alleged offences, or perhaps we should consider what, if you were in the same position as King, how would you of reacted?