Controversy
King has been the subject of controversy during his career. In 2003 following his semi-final defeat to Raymond van Barneveld, he subsequently blamed the air conditioning for blowing his darts off course. The following year in his first round match against Rick Hofstra, when tied at 1–1 in sets, King complained that the length of the oche was not right; the players were forced to leave the stage whilst officials measured, King was incorrect. The players returned with the majority of the crowd against King, though he went on to win the match 3–1.
In the 2007 BDO World Championship, King played Mike Veitch in the second round, winning 4–2. After King had thrown the winning dart, Veitch refused to shake King's hand saying he'd been put off by King shouting whilst collecting his darts from the board.
In the 2010 Grand Slam of Darts, King played then-BDO player John Henderson in his last group game. Despite winning the game 5–4, he exchanged heated words with Henderson towards the end of the match and was visibly unhappy. Whilst refusing to reveal the precise reason to his actions, it was understood through television analysis that King felt Henderson, after having to move across the oche for a better shot with his third dart, had stepped across the oche line and thrown from a closer distance to the board, thus believing he had gained an unfair advantage. It was also discovered that King had complained to the match referee, George Noble, about the alleged infrigment. Many pundits, most notably Chris Mason, pointed out that Henderson rarely checks his standing position before throwing, and publicly criticised King for insinuating that Henderson cheated. However, two days later King admitted that he had overreacted after watching the match again on television and apologised to Henderson during a pre-match interview. King was booed by the crowd while attempting to hit a double four to win in the deciding leg of the second round match against James Wade; he failed, and lost.
Read more about this topic: Mervyn King (darts Player)
Famous quotes containing the word controversy:
“Ours was a highly activist administration, with a lot of controversy involved ... but I’m not sure that it would be inconsistent with my own political nature to do it differently if I had it to do all over again.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“And therefore, as when there is a controversy in an account, the parties must by their own accord, set up for right Reason, the Reason of some Arbitrator, or Judge, to whose sentence, they will both stand, or their controversy must either come to blows, or be undecided, for want of a right Reason constituted by Nature; so is it also in all debates of what kind soever.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)