The recent furore surrounding Peter Wright's 'optic illusion' checkout in Belfast on Thursday appears to have been put to bed.
The two-time world champion found himself subject to allegations of cheating on the opening night of the new Premier League Darts campaign when he faced Chris Dobey in the first round. Wright, 52, levelled the scoreline at two legs apiece when he checked out 121 by throwing bullseye, treble 13 and double 16.
But many fans felt incensed after a close-up of the Scot's second throw appeared to show he'd missed the treble marker and should have scored just 13. Referee Russ Bray had a perfect view of the shot in question, however, and gave the bigger score for Wright to collect the first ton-plus finish of the match.
However, an in-depth breakdown of the throw has shown just where spectators may have been confused. Thankfully, darts YouTuber Matthew Edgar went through the moment in finer detail to dispel any ill feelings.
Using a higher-resolution image of the treble 13, it's his assertion that what some fans had interpreted as the tip of the darts landing outside the treble 13 was in fact just the flight of the dart. Edgar went so far as to draw lines on the snapshot to show how the camera angle had deceived, even isolating what appears to the actual tip inside the treble marker.
"When we put that wire line in there, first of all, you can see clear as day that most of the dart is inside [the treble 13], and the point would come in the middle," said Edgar. "And actually, if you look even closer here, you can see there's a little black line here. . .that is the point of the dart."
There were more than a few fans fooled by the deceptive angle initially, though one can forgive the folly in hindsight. "That clearly didn't hit T13," wrote one fan on Twitter, while others suggested there should be a 'VAR' call like those used in football.
It mattered little in the end as Dobey went on to beat 'Snakebite' 6-3 in the Belfast opener. And it proved only the tip of the iceberg on a special night for 'Hollywood', who edged out Michael van Gerwen 6-5 in the evening's finale to move to the top of the standings.
The Premier League Darts resumes at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff next Friday (Feb. 9), where Dobey will take on home favourite Gerwyn Price in the first round. Second-seed Wright will take on Nathan Aspinall in his opener, meanwhile, but will hope the fans get a better angle to avoid any further grievances.
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