James Wade has continued his development of weird greetings for his darts rivals.
5-time world champion Raymond van Barneveld was the newest star to fall sufferer to Wade’s unusual antics, because the 41-year-old gave him a kiss on the cheek earlier than their second spherical conflict on the Belgian Darts Open.
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Van Barneveld evidently noticed the humorous aspect of all of it as he confirmed off a large grin following the interplay.
Nonetheless, ‘Barney’ was in no laughing temper previous to Wade planting a kiss on his cheek.
The Dutch darts icon waved his arms within the course of the referee after Wade appeared to take his time throughout his walk-on.
Wade finally prevailed 6-4 to guide a 3rd spherical conflict with Boris Krcmar.
The 41-year-old’s distinctive greeting for Van Barneveld comes after he controversially appeared to lick Luke Humphries previous to their UK Open quarter-final contest.
It was evidently a tense affair between the 2 when they didn’t trade a customary handshake or fist bump going into the deciding leg.
Wade secured the upset victory by a 10-9 margin, a end result which left Humphries pissed off as he appeared to shoulder barge his rival following the competition.
The world No. 1 later defined his actions in a since-deleted publish on X.
“Everybody likes to see folks be a nasty loser however I am typically the most effective losers within the sport,” Humphries wrote.
“I wasn’t going to present somebody who did not deserve my respect after what he was doing via the sport a hug and be all completely happy about it, that is simply my honesty.”
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Wade went on to achieve the ultimate however he was blown to smithereens by Luke Littler, as {the teenager} romped to an 11-2 win.
Regardless of his run to the ultimate, all of the headlines surrounding Wade belonged to his unusual licking of Humphries.
Former darts star and talkSPORT commentator Paul Nicholson was one who was not a fan of Wade’s actions and claimed in a column for Sporting Life the incident may very well be ‘investigated.’
“There had seemingly been tensions constructing all through they usually did not trade the same old handshake or fist bump earlier than the deciding leg, which Wade licking Humphries’ neck earlier than the match might have been a difficulty,” Nicholson wrote.
“I feel generally as a competitor, you need to draw a line and say, ‘If you’ll play video games and do issues inside a aggressive atmosphere that cross the road, then don’t count on respect in return’.
“The {photograph} that surfaced of James sticking his tongue out and touched Luke’s neck was disgusting and I wouldn’t be shocked if it was investigated.
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“Whether or not that was one of many issues that bothered Luke or not, the very fact he left the stage within the method he did after the match wasn’t something to do with being a ‘unhealthy loser’.
“If James hadn’t completed something provocative, Luke’s response to defeat would have been very totally different.”