FORMER darts world champion Peter Wright has been told it’s time to retire – because he’s playing CRAP.
The two-time champ lost out to debutant Arno Merk at the Ally Pally 3-0 in a shock second round defeat.
Wright, 55, averaged a poultry 79.20 in the defeat and instead of facing Michael van Gerwen in the third round, will be going home.
Now Dutchman van Gerwen, 36, has told his rival it’s time to put the arrows away because of his dip in form.
Since winning the European Championship in 2023, Wright has failed to progress further than the quarter-final stage of any ranked tournament.
Van Gerwen, who earlier on in the tournament had a war of words with Wright after he criticised his eyesight, was asked about Snakebite’s struggles of late.
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And he didn’t mince his words – saying his time is UP.
He said: “You want me to answer this? I can answer this really easily.
“I’m not really surprised by his performance because he’s been playing c**p lately and I think it’s time for him to retire, anyway.”
However, Wright’s countryman Gary Anderson stood up for him and backed him to recover the form that turned him into a world championship contender.
He also blasted the critics for thinking darts players are ‘robots’.
Anderson said: “We can’t play well all the time.
“People think we’re robots, you’ve just got to play well all the time. ‘Oh he’s had a bad couple of games, he’s finished. He’s retiring.’
“Just give folk a break. We can’t keep doing that day-in and day-out.”
Ironically, Anderson actually used van Gerwen as an example.
He continued: “We’ve seen Michael van Gerwen do it for probably the last decade. He has a blip. Well that’s him, he’s finished. Give the bloke a bit of time.
“We can’t keep doing it day after day, month after month, year after year. It’d be nice to, but we just can’t. It’s just one of these things.“
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