Jurjen van der Velde comes prepared for battle with Ally Pally wasp

Jurjen van der Velde came prepared for his first encounter with the Ally Pally wasp as he arrived on stage with a can of insect spray for his PDC World Championship debut.

The unseeded Dutchman was up against compatriot Danny Noppert but was clearly well versed in the additional threats at Alexandra Palace after the wasp made its presence felt once again in the early stages of this year’s tournament.

Van der Velde made a show of spraying the aerosol around and above his head before the match got under way.

He appeared to have to wipe tears from his eyes ahead of the contest, with the PDC saying on X: “Unconfirmed whether Jurjen Van der Velde is emotional or has sprayed bug spray in his eyes.”

But he was certainly right to be cautious, as he had to bat the wasp away from his face during the second set.

Van der Velde was not the first player to have trouble at this year’s tournament, with defending champion Luke Littler required to duck and dive to avoid the wasp during a post-match interview following his first-round win over Darius Labanauskas on Thursday.

The mischievous mood continued the following day, with Ross Smith oblivious to the insect on the back of his neck as he threw during his surprise 3-2 defeat to Andreas Harrysson.

Former world champion Rob Cross also failed to notice the wasp on his shoulder during an interview after his 3-0 triumph over Cor Dekker.

There was more tungsten trouble for the players over the weekend, with the wasp surviving after Ted Evetts flicked it off his check on his way to losing to Luke Humphries.

It then got a little too close to the action when it got hit by Nitin Kumar during his historic win over Richard Veenstra.

Martin Lukeman appeared to be stung during the opening leg of his match against Max Hopp on Monday evening, while Dirk van Duijvenbode stepped back off the oche during the following match against Andy Baetens to keep his distance from the flying pest.

Chris Dobey also batted the wasp away during Tuesday’s win over Zong Xiaochen.