Peter Crouch delights darts fans by downing pint to huge reception at Ally Pally

20 December 2023 , 08:24

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Peter Crouch joined in with the festivities by downing a pint at Ally Pally (Image: @OfficialPDC)

Peter Crouch embraced everything the World Championship has to offer, enjoying both the darts and the pints at Alexandra Palace on Tuesday night.

Standing at 6ft 7in, the former Liverpool striker often struggles to blend into the crowd and he didn’t try to hide away at Ally Pally. On a Christmas night out with his podcast friends Steve Sidwell and Chris Stark, Crouch got into the swing of things while watching Michael van Gerwen and co at the oche.

A video clip posted on social media by PDC Darts showed Crouch downing a pint while being egged on by a crowd of fancy dress-clad fans. Crouch chinned his drink in rapid fashion before being serenaded with a chant of “Crouchy’s on the p***”.

Clearly revelling in the adulation, Crouch stood up to dance along to the tune of his supporters. Former Fulham midfielder Sidwell was soon joining in, draining his own beer and turning it upside down on top of his head.

The laughs didn’t stop there, either, with former Radio 1 DJ Stark forced to dance on stage with the cheerleaders after losing a bet. To be fair, they did also watch some darts – and were treated to some good matches before Van Gerwen headlined the night.

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Mighty Mike dropped just two legs as he saw off Irish youngster Keane Barry in some style, averaging 98.17 and checking out a roof-raising 167 to progress to the third round. "I'm happy to win my first game, and I'm happy with how I focussed today," he said afterwards.

Peter Crouch got up for a dance to celebrate his achievement (@OfficialPDC)

Michael van Gerwen during his match against Keane Barry (Getty)

"I'm pleased with my finishing but I could've done a lot more and I'm a little bit disappointed with my scoring. There's a lot of pressure on me and all the top players not to lose your first game; you don't want to let yourself down and you have to fight for every leg. I'm just happy to be coming back after Christmas and hopefully I can show what I can do."

It was not such a happy day for James Wade, who became the first seeded player to exit the competition as he went down 3-2 to Matt Campbell earlier on day five. "For sure, this is the biggest win of my career so far, because of where it happened," said Campbell.

“I'd never won on the Ally Pally stage in four attempts before this year so this tournament has been huge for me.I think winning my first game against Lourence [Ilagan] helped me win this game because it got the monkey off my back. Now I'm looking forward to enjoying Christmas and seeing how far I can go in this tournament."

Felix Keith