Jonny Clayton's new plan to stop crowd disruption at PDC events amid Luke Littler, Ross Smith incidents

Jonny Clayton believes that a new method should be adopted to stop the increasingly common issue of crowd disruption during PDC tournaments.

Luke Littler's match against Nathan Aspinall at the World Series Finals was twice paused last month due to crowd disturbances, while Ross Smith was relentlessly booed by the crowd when he had match darts during his Swiss Darts Trophy clash against Mensur Suljovic on Sunday.

It is the crowd whistling that a number of players have complained about, and few have been as vocal as Clayton about the issue in the past.

READ MORE: Mensur Suljovic crossed the line with unacceptable on-stage comment after Ross Smith allegations

'Maybe if we went down the line of...' - Jonny Clayton wants PDC to tackle crowd whistling

Speaking to SPORTbible (via AskGamblers), Clayton says he cannot understand why fans would whistle players while they are on stage - though says it is important to differentiate that from those fans who are simply supporting their favourites.

"I personally don't get why you would pay, I don't know how much a ticket is, but let's say a ticket is £30. So if you're going to pay £30... to me, if I wanted to pay £30 to watch a game of darts, it's obviously because I like darts and I'd want to see the players playing the best that they can," he said. "Why would you whistle to put them off? Those players are trying to play their best game. I just don't get it.

"I get the fans where, you'll have your Jonny Clayton fan cheering me, and then you'd have your Gezzy Price fan cheering him, for instance. I get that bit because you need a bit of that. But the whistling part of it, I just don't get it. I don't get it at all. I have to be honest there, because to me, if I'm paying good money, then I want to see good darts. I just don't get it."

Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton have both been on the end of crowd whistling (Image: Getty)

"If you're in a big arena, and there are things happening further back, you don't really hear it. Obviously you can hear it, but it's not clear," the world number six explained. "But if it's closer to the stage, you hear it as if they're standing next door to you, kind of thing. And it's that lot that are spoiling the game."

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In terms of dealing with the issue, Clayton thinks a whole table approach might have to be adopted when it comes to individuals crossing the line - but accepts that can create its own problems.

"It's hard to catch that person who's whistling on camera to maybe throw them out, but maybe if we went down the line of, well, if we can get the table that he's sat on and say to them, 'Right, the whole table is going out'," he said. "But surely somebody's going to go, 'I want us to send him or her out', or whatever.

"It's a difficult one, because if the referee tells somebody to go, 'Right, stop doing that', probably that guy is going to do it worse. Or he's going to go, 'No, I'm going to do it again'.

"It needs to stop because it's spoiling the game a bit. We're just up there to try and show people what we can do. We're trying to win the fanbase. You know, I don't go up there for somebody to turn around and say, 'Ah, I'm not going to follow Jonny Clayton'. I want them to follow me. I want to try and show what I can do, win them over, and for them to maybe buy my shirt, buy my darts. That's what I'm trying to do. I want as many fans as I can get.

"But I just don't like it being spoiled by people whistling because they think it's funny."

Jonny Clayton wins latest tournament at Swiss Darts Trophy

Clayton managed to win the Swiss Darts Trophy in Basel on Sunday, defeating Luke Humphries 8-4 in the final.

He defeated Rob Cross in the last 16 stage, before victories over Karel Sedlacek and Gian van Veen secured his spot in the final against Humphries.

It is the Welshman's second tournament success this year, with Clayton having won the New Zealand Darts Masters in August.

He has not reached a major final otherwise, but has been consistently reaching the latter stages of tournaments, getting as far as the quarter-finals of the World Grand Prix and the UK Open, and the semi-finals of the Premier League and World Series Finals.

Clayton has earned enough ranking points to compete in both the European Championship and Players Championship Finals events, and will be a seeded player at the World Darts Championship in December.