James Wade came up with a hilarious excuse after seemingly letting out a huge fart during his victory over Callan Rydz at the Players Championship. Wade cruised to a 6-5 victory over his fellow Englishman but it was his behaviour away from the oche that had people talking.
The 41-year-old was caught on camera walking over to a table after the 11th leg of the match, which he won. Wade then slightly bent his knees as the sound of a loud fart, which was clearly audible on the video feed, ripped through the venue.
After the match, Wade also posted a hilarious statement to his social media channels, jokingly blaming the fart sound on his velcro trainers.
“I feel I must address a situation following my run to the semi-finals of PC22 today,” he wrote. “Footage has emerged of me doing what appears to be a ‘shart’ at the end of one of my matches.
“It was actually the velcro on my new trainers. I now consider this matter put to bed as I don’t wish to talk about it again.”
Wayne Mardle, who regularly works as a pundit on Sky Sports, was left in hysterics after watching a clip of the incident on social media. Taking to X, formerly Twitter, he shared the video to his 174,000 followers alongside the caption: “HAHAHAHAAHAHAHAH.”
The clip went viral almost immediately but Wade did not lose his focus, going on to secure a 6-5 victory over Rydz. He ended up losing his next game at the hands of Gary Anderson, who pulled off three brilliant finishes to wrap up a 7-4 triumph.
Anderson was previously involved in his own farting scandal, with Wesley Harms claiming that he had let one rip at the Grand Slam of Darts back in 2018. The veteran Scotsman was quick to deny that he was responsible for what he described as a ‘rotten egg’ smell.
“If the boy thinks I’ve farted he’s 1,010 per cent wrong,” said Anderson. “I had a bad stomach once on stage before and admitted it, so I’m not going to lie about farting on stage.
“Every time I walked past there was a waft of rotten eggs so that’s why I was thinking it was him. It was bad. It was a stink, then he started to play better and I thought he must have needed to get some wind out. If somebody has done that they need to see a doctor.”