Nathan Aspinall wasn't impressed with himself at the start of his fourth leg against Martin Lukeman on Monday and world champion Luke Littler reckons he might be in hot water.
'The Nuke' had his say on a potential fine for Aspinall after an X-rated outburst during his PDC Players Championship 13 quarter-final win over Lukeman in Rosmalen.
Taking a 2-1 lead into the fourth leg, Aspinall pulled his first dart and reacted with frustration, declaring his effort "f***ing w***" and shaking his head.
Despite throwing an average of 84.17, the world number 7 defeated Lukeman 6-2 before beating Jonny Clayton 7-4 to claim his place in the final of the tour event.
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In-form Australian Damon Heta started the final as favourite and won 8-6, and Aspinall's comment earlier in the day could prove costly.
Reviewing the quarter-final matches on TikTok, floating darts head Tom Talks Darts played the footage of Aspinall's irritation.
"That four-second clip there has probably cost Nathan Aspinall a couple of hundred quid," said the TikToker.
According to the most popular reply to his video, "a couple of hundred quid" might be understating the matter somewhat.
World champion Littler replied: "could[sic] hundred u don’t know what’s coming his way"
"Ahahahaha," responded Tom Talks Darts.
Littler evidently expects the Darts Regulation Authority (DRA) to throw the book at Aspinall but even with the total prize fund for each Players Championship event standing at £125,000, Aspinall probably won't face too heavy a sanction.
It's unlikely that a couple of swearwords in a non-televised match will take much of a chunk out of Aspinall's £10,000 runner-up prize money but the DRA has issued some very significant levies in the past.
In 2019, Gerwyn Price was slapped with fines totalling £21,500 for a series of incidents in the run towards a heated Grand Slam final match against Gary Anderson the year before.
Price's fines were ultimately reduced drastically on appeal.
The DRA has been known to settle for a formal warning when it comes to inappropriate language, even on television, but Aspinall is not a first-time offender.
The Englishman was fined £250 for an inappropriate gesture in 2022 and might be anticipating a similar fine on this occasion.
In other words, it could cost him a couple of hundred quid.
Topics: Luke Littler, Darts
Chris Nee