Darts star Gerwyn Price has discovered a new way to get battered after his dustbin-lid headphones stunt – he's opening a fish and chip shop.
The 'Iceman' whipped up a storm by wearing industrial ear defenders to try and block out the noise of a hostile crowd at Alexandra Palace last winter, but he now admits it made the problem “10 times worse.”
But the former world No.1, who is branching out into cod, haddock and plaice in a new takeaway venture in his home village of Markham, insists he has no regrets about those cans – even though some hostile critics thought he was a right pollock for doing it.
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Darts royalty John Lowe, a three-times world champion, accused him of turning the tournament into a “pantomime.” Price goes into the Paddy Power PDC Darts World Championship, which starts on Friday night, as one of the favourites, even though his only triumph at Ally Pally was behind closed doors and the only boos were on the soundtrack of piped-in crowd noise.
Come on, people, give the man a break. He only resorted to the headset accessories because punters were going beyond drunken refrains about the Welsh getting “battered everywhere they go” and trying to distract him on game shots.
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That's what made Price, 38, jump out of the frying pan and into the deep-fat fryer in his shock quarter-final defeat by German giant Gabriel Clemens on New Year's Day, when the former champion went from cod almighty to being knocked off his perch.
He can laugh about the cans now, saying: “It's something I would do again – it shouldn't happen on that stage, but I did what I did and I can't do it again because they are banned now. The PDC said no more headphones.
“I actually want to do a walk-on wearing them and a hi-viz, then take them off to play, but the PDC wouldn't know which way it would go.
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“Don't get me wrong, I don't regret it – footballers lead out mascots with autism wearing headphones (as a gesture of solidarity), and I had so many messages off parents with autistic kids who absolutely loved it. There were obviously more negatives than positives, but if there were one or two positives to come out of it, happy days.
“I would do exactly the same thing again, but did it block out the crowd? No – if anything, it was 10 times worse. But I was just trying to prove a point.”
Price tried his headphones gimmick when he trailed 3-1 against Clemens, but he disposed of them after only one set and settled for airline-style earplugs instead as he crashed out 5-1.
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Later, he posted a cryptic message on Instagram hinting he would never play at Ally Pally again, but the former rugby union hooker with Cross Keys, whose conversion from scrum to oche is one of sport's great transformations, was simply too good a player to carry out his threat.
Within 10 days, he was on a plane to the Bahrain Darts Masters and poking fun at himself with a selfie, wearing in-flight headphones and the caption: “Trying out a new set.”
Price has put his entrepreneur's skills to the test by designing and building his own luxury home in Markham, where he also opened Cafe 501 – the name is a nod to his successful darts career – making him the new Eric Bistro of his community.
He revealed: “The cafe's not doing too good at the minute – business is a little bit up and down, so I'm opening a fish-and-chip shop and the cafe is going to move in with that.
“With the cost of living crisis, footfall in the village is a bit slower so I'm branching out into fish and chips and turning the cafe into a flat.”
Price opens his World Championship campaign next Monday night against either Connor Scutt or Krzysztof Kciuk. It would be one hake of an upset if he went out at the first hurdle.
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