Gary Anderson Made 'Deliberately Lost' Claim After Rival Hit By Coins In PL Match
Gary Anderson once claimed that he 'deliberately lost' a Premier League Darts match due to the behaviour of the crowd towards opponent Adrian Lewis - before clarifying that he would 'never intentionally lose a match'.
Anderson won the 2011 Premier League title after defeating Lewis 10-4 in the final at Wembley Stadium.
In the league phase, he took on Lewis during the week eight meeting in Glasgow, Scotland.
Anderson, who was born near Edinburgh, was unsurprisingly the home hero on the night and received significant backing from those in attendance.
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From the beginning of the match, the partisan crowd booed Lewis every time he stepped up to the oche.
'Jackpot' needed 68 to win the first leg, but stepped back from the oche mid-throw and gestured towards the crowd.
He then pointed out to the match referee that something had been thrown in his direction, which only heightened the abuse he received from the Glasgow crowd.
Anderson went 3-0 up but was clearly furious at the reaction towards Lewis, who is a close friend.
'Jackpot' then reeled off five legs in a row, and during leg nine, Anderson stopped during one of his throws to pick up a coin, pocket it and shout some choice words in the direction of the crowd.
Lewis would win the match 8-3 - with the crowd eventually stopping the abuse as he got closer to the finish line.
Four years later, Anderson was asked by BBC Scotland if he had intentionally lost the match.
He replied: "Yes. I didn't want to win a game where that happened. I thought it was a disgrace."
"It was bad that night," he continued. "I'm a proud Scotsman but when that happened, it sickened me."
After his comments were published, Anderson took to social media to state that he 'didn't answer that question as I meant to' and that he 'would never intentionally lose a match', while clarifying his words.
"I would never intentionally lose a match, nor step on the oche to give anything other than my best," he wrote (via Daily Record).
"But that night I thought the crowd behaviour was so disgraceful I lost all my motivation to win and was completely unable to concentrate.
"It wasn't a question of not wanting to win, I just found myself without the ability to do so because I felt so ashamed of what was happening I could not focus at all on playing."
The PDC subsequently stated: "Although we can see how Gary's comments may have been misconstrued, we have confidence in the integrity of Gary and all our players - and would not want a slip in an interview to undermine this."
Topics: Darts, Premier League
Ryan Smart