Emotional Dutch darts kid bursts into tears during walk-on and brings wasp spray to Ally Pally stage
Jurgen van der Velde showed his raw emotion at being involved in the biggest tournament of the lot and had wasp spray
21:18, 16 Dec 2025
Emotional kid Jurgen van der Velde burst into tears as he did his walk-on at the Ally Pally armed with a can of wasp spray trying to nail the pest.
The Dutch youngster made his debut at The Paddy Power World Championship facing countryman Danny Noppert. Van der Velde was filled with excitement at the opportunity to play in front of his thrilled family on the biggest stage of the lot.
And, as his song played walking into the contest, the 23-year-old welled with the excitement and let tears flow in a touching moment. He then covered his face with a cloth having fired off a blast of spray which he had taken on stage to defend himself against the pesky insects who has dominated the tournanent.
The wasp has been flying onto the collars of various players during matches since the championship opened with Luke Littler having to fend him off during his post-match interview.
Gary Anderson and Peter Wright have also seen the wasp and Van der Velde was taking no chances in his preparations to face Noppert. However, in balsting out the spray, it appeared some of it went in his already wet eyes.
The youngster, who put on a strong showing before losing 3-1 to his compatriot, was playing for the first time at the Palace and spoke prior to the event about his life working on a farm and milking cows.
He said: “The farm is in Zevenhuizen, in the north of the Netherlands. At the start of the year I started to live together with my girlfriend but I still work on the farm, milking the cows and driving the tractor.
“How many cows are there? About 180. There is no particular reason why it’s that number but it fits well.
“When I milk them, the alarm goes off at 4.15am, which always feels very early, we start by cleaning the boxes [sheds] and around 5am we start milking.
“We clean the udders with towels, but the actual miking is done by machines. It’s a family business. My grandad started it and my dad took it over.
“We normally finish the milking around 8am, so we go in the house for some coffee and bread after that. Sometimes my dad needs my help and sometimes I can go home.
“Believe it or not I’m not an early bird, even though I get up at 4.15am, so sometimes I will go back to bed for two hours and then I start to practise.
“My father told me if you need to travel to play darts, we can get help and that’s okay. I don’t drink milk from the supermarkets because I don’t like some of the things they put in the milk and the taste is very different when you take it directly from the farm.
“That’s the only milk I drink – from our farm, because I know it from the taste. It comes from a big tank of 13,000 litres, which empties every two days when we sell it on.
“We have around 80 hectares including the fields but 180 cows need space to graze. Every March or April, when it’s dry enough for the cows to go outside, they can eat the grass. I have not thought too much about how many cows you can buy with £1 million if you win the World Championship, but it’s a lot.
“I’m just happy my debut at Ally Pally. I won’t be walking on stage with a cow. We have a few chicks, that might be easier!”
