English darts star Cam Crabtree has revealed extreme heat can turn PDC venues into ‘fly central’ for players.
The world No.69 has opened up on the impact of sweltering conditions after competing in two Players Championship events in Hildesheim, Germany in recent weeks.
Crabtree suffered a first-round exit to Niko Springer at Players Championship 25, before losing out in the second round to Michael Smith the following day at Players Championship 26.
And while the 22-year-old endured some tough battles in Germany, he has since revealed players were facing other challenges at the oche.
With temperatures soaring in Europe in recent weeks, Crabtree explained how this caused conditions inside Hildesheim’s Halle 39 venue to become almost unbearable.
Among the problems created by these playing environments, he revealed one of them is swarms of flies appearing in halls.
‘Eight million darts’
While Crabtree revealed playing conditions in extreme heat are far from ideal, he admitted there is little the PDC Tour can do to make things more bearable for players.
Answering a question about the heat on his TikTok account, he said: “That makes them sound bad, but what can the [PDC] do? If you put fans on, it will blow the darts.
“When they sell the drinks, they have ice, so if you want some ice, you can get some ice. That is about it.
“When it is really warm in the venue in Hildesheim, you just get eight million flies.
“So if you eat anything, there is a fly in your food. If you drink anything, there is a fly in your cup.
“If you are trying to throw, there is probably a fly on the board. That place is like fly central.
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“It is disgusting. But there is not really anything they can do. That isn’t anything bad on their part.”
Crabtree’s recent comments about insects at PDC events may sound like a familiar story to some darts fans.
Over the years, the ‘Ally Pally wasp’ became a recurring theme at the World Darts Championship.
At the 2025 edition, world champion Luke Littler famously had to fight it off on opening night, while Kenya’s David Munyua even had one land on his cheek.
Speaking at the time, PhD student Idris Adams revealed on talkSPORT that this would likely be due to the warm conditions at the tournament’s iconic Alexandra Palace venue.
James Wade’s view
While Crabtree insisted players have little choice but to carry on when faced with extreme heat, PDC star James Wade has previously called for events to be postponed if conditions become unsafe.
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The Machine raised concerns after reaching the third round of the European Darts Open in Leverkusen last month, with several players struggling in hot conditions.
He said: “I think it gets to a point where the organisation needs to respect the dart players a little bit and moving forwards, shouldn’t have to play in heat like that.
“There are dart players that are entertaining the nation. Not me but some of the top boys. They entertain the nation throughout countless times.
“Then they are expected to go out there and play in that. That is not fair. It isn’t right I don’t think.
“Postpone it. Postpone events like this.
“Every dart player’s aware of the heat here and it seems like people around the tournament haven’t acknowledged what it is. All the time dart players are doing as they’re told, nothing will happen.”
