Why did Gerwyn Price wear ear defenders and why is he banned?

GERWYN PRICE shocked Alexandra Palace last year by turning up to a match against Gabriel Clemens wearing huge EAR DEFENDERS.

However, the Welshman only wore the ear defenders once before the PDC stepped in.

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Gerwyn Price wearing the big ear defenders in last year’s tournament[/caption]

But why did Price wear the ear defenders and why was he banned?

We have you covered.

Why did Gerwyn Price wear ear defenders?

Gerwyn Price was simply drowning out the Ally Pally noise.

The Welshman – nicknamed ‘The Iceman’ – has become something of a pantomime villain for the Ally Pally crowd in recent years.

He continues to be greeted with a chorus of boos every time he plays – although they are not as loud as they were in last year’s tournament.

The ear defenders came about as Price tried to drown out the noise and fight his way back into the match against Clemens, which he ended up losing anyway.

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He had spoken before the game about wearing ear-plugs, though no-one expected them to be quite so BIG.

Instead he wore huge ear defenders covering the side of his head, but later took them off to reveal normal ear-plugs which stayed in for the rest of the game.

After his win over Raymond van Barneveld, Price said: “If Raymond had been in the match better and the crowd had turned against me more, I probably still would have done it. But now it wasn’t necessary.

“And by the way, it’s not just about headphones, but then I put in earplugs. I first tried it at home during the Christmas break just with earplugs in, but then I still heard too much. With the headphones in, I couldn’t even hear my kids anymore; then I knew it would work well.”

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Gerwyn Price later just had ear-plugs in – with the PDC since banning oversized earphones and defenders[/caption]

Why were ear defenders banned?

The PDC moved quickly after the tournament to ban oversized ear defenders or headphones – in-ear items are still allowed.

The amended regulations state: “Players are not permitted to wear earphones, headphones or headphone-type ear defenders during the throw at the bull prior to the match or during matchplay.”

What did Gerwyn Price say?

Speaking in February, Price said: “I wore them once, I won’t be wearing them again and it’s best left at that, if I’m honest.

“I’m not a fan of earplugs, so from now on I’m just going to take whatever comes my way, like I have for the last couple of years, and just focus on playing darts.

“There’s nothing else to say about it: I’m just concentrating on this Premier League, and whatever’s happened in the past I would appreciate it if people would stop talking about it because I tried something, it didn’t work and we move on.”

Price has since suggested moving the World Darts Championships away from Ally Pally and touring around the world.

However, Michael van Gerwen disagreed with that idea and that Ally Pally is “iconic”.

The Dutchman said: “With all due respect, Gezzy can also blame himself a little bit for getting all the boos.

“If you keep doing this (cupping ears) to the crowd, then you’re going to get it and I keep telling him that.”