Stephen Bunting wants darts to start throwing hecklers out of arenas, not just asking them to stop.

“Punishments need to be brought in, maybe. To give it some sort of stop,” Bunting told SportBible after a World Series of Darts Finals in Amsterdam that was marred by frequent whistling and booing whenever Luke Littler stepped up to the oche.

It is the whistling that Bunting says he cannot stand.

“It’s a horrible noise to hear when you’re trying to concentrate,” he said. “I don’t like the whistling. I’d rather have someone shouting abuse at me than whistling.”

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Littler had already made his own position blunt. After his 10-4 quarter-final defeat to Jonny Clayton on Sunday, September 20, the 19-year-old told reporters he was ready to strike Dutch European Tour events off his calendar.

“If the Dutch stay like this, then I’m not going to do any Euro tours over there,” Littler said. “There’s just no point in me travelling, wasting my time whilst I’m getting booed.”

Referee Charlie Corstorphine had to intervene during Littler’s last-16 win over Nathan Aspinall the night before, and Littler said he had walked off stage after both matches without acknowledging the crowd.

Price and Wade also skip Den Bosch

Within 48 hours of Littler pulling his name from Players Championship 29 and 30 in Den Bosch, Gerwyn Price and James Wade followed him out of the entry lists for the September 22 and 23 events. Luke Humphries and Gary Anderson are also absent from the field.

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Neither Price nor Wade publicly linked the decision to crowd behaviour. The effect on the tournament is the same either way: several of the sport’s biggest names are missing from a Dutch weekend at a moment when the PDC’s handling of hostile crowds is under scrutiny.

Phil Taylor: ‘Hit them in the pocket’

Bunting is not alone in calling for real sanctions. Phil Taylor told SportBible that fans who disrupt matches should be shown the door.

“What’s the solution? Just throw them out. Hit them in the pocket,” Taylor said.

“They pay for a ticket. If they start whistling and booing and doing whatever they feel like, then out you go.”

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Taylor argued the case for tougher action as a matter of duty of care to younger players.

“For somebody who’s like 17, 18 years old, it’s life-destroying. The lad is up there trying to make a living.”

PDC security ‘experimenting’ in the stands

Publicly, the governing body has not announced any new penalty framework. Behind the scenes, security staff are already trying out fresh methods for dealing with whistlers in the stands, according to former player and pundit Mark Webster.

“I spoke to a few of the security guys who are experimenting with stuff within the crowd,” Webster told Sky Sports. “The booing, they won’t be able to stop, but the whistling is something that’s a bugbear to a lot of players at the minute. The PDC are trying to get rid of it.”

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That leaves Bunting’s demand for formal punishments well ahead of anything the PDC has committed to on the record. The two Den Bosch tournaments are being played on September 22 and 23 without Littler, Price or Wade in the draw.

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