Stephen Bunting believes penalties may be needed to curb whistling and other disruptive crowd behaviour at darts events, speaking out shortly after Luke Littler threatened to skip future tournaments in the Netherlands following his reception in Amsterdam. Littler faced frequent boos and whistles during the World Series of Darts Finals, and the 19-year-old made no secret of his frustration with the stands, even hinting he might avoid future tournaments in the Netherlands.
For Littler, the tournament ended in the quarter-finals, where Jonny Clayton not only halted his title charge in Amsterdam but also ended his bid to win every major PDC title in 2026. Bunting can understand why the Amsterdam scenes may have unsettled Littler. Speaking to SPORTbible, "The Bullet" discussed the crowd issue at length. "I think it's really hard, isn't it? Obviously, Luke is the best player in the world. For whatever reason, the crowd got on his back, they didn't want him to do the clean sweep," said Bunting. The 41-year-old believes that may have put extra tension on Littler at the oche. "He was probably on edge, anyway, going into the tournament. I think maybe in Germany, maybe in Belgium, I've had it a few times where the crowd has whistled out."
Bunting also knows from experience how hard it is to stop that behaviour mid-match, recalling a recent game where the referee explicitly asked for silence, which had the opposite effect. "If you let the crowd know they're getting to you, it can be ten times worse. It's a hard one to say, but I don't like the whistling. I'd rather have someone shouting abuse at me than whistling." The sharp whistle, Bunting says, is especially disruptive when a player is focusing on a key dart. "It's a horrible noise to hear when you're trying to concentrate," Bunting admitted. "But I understand it'll keep happening, no matter how much we talk about it." That is why the former major winner thinks stricter measures may be necessary. "Punishments need to be brought in, maybe. To give it some sort of stop. Until that happens, it'll keep happening."
Bunting is doing everything he can to shield himself from external distractions, revealing he uses hypnotherapy and has previously worked with a sports psychologist to change his mental approach to the game. "I don't go down a negative path anymore. I always look for the positives in a game," said Bunting. "I was locking myself away, I was unhappy… I felt like everyone was laughing at me." That was the moment Bunting sought professional help. "So I went to see a sports psychologist. He trained my brain in a way that I never thought could happen. I'm always walking around with a smile on my face, and that's one of the reasons why." Around four years ago he added hypnotherapy, using a striking metaphor to explain how he now deals with negative thoughts. "The hypnotism came about four years ago, now. There's a bucket in your brain that fills up with negative thoughts… now I know how to empty the bucket."
For now, Littler appears ready to back up his words about the Netherlands. The Englishman will miss the next three PDC events on Dutch soil, having withdrawn from Players Championship 29 and 30 in Den Bosch, while his name is also absent from the published entry list for the Dutch Darts Championship. His absence from the two Players Championship events is not a complete surprise: before his exit in Amsterdam, Littler had said he would only play Den Bosch if he won the World Series of Darts Finals, a title that would have kept alive his bid for an unprecedented clean sweep of the big PDC events. After losing to Clayton, that motivation disappeared, and the Players Championship events could also have earned Littler prize money towards qualifying for the Players Championship Finals later in the year. His absence from the Dutch Darts Championship in Maastricht stands out more, and it is not yet clear whether Littler had always planned to skip that Euro Tour event, or whether the decision relates to his comments after the hostile Dutch reception.
The debate over fan behaviour in darts will not fade quickly. Bunting does not see the problem solving itself and believes the sport may need to go a step further to better protect players during their throws.
