If Martin Schindler wants to avoid friendly fire next time he’s on the oche, he might want to heed Rob Cross’ advice.
Schindler sent the darts world into a frenzy during his sixth round clash against Jonny Clayton at the UK Open last Saturday.
X – @OfficialPDCOne of Schindler’s darts during a practice throw came flying back at him[/caption]
The German had been tossing practice darts during an interval but had to react quickly when one cannoned off a wire on the board and flew back at him.
Fortunately the dart did not come back at his face but the same could not be said for his shoe, which was where his arrow became stuck.
Schindler bent down to pluck the arrow from his shoe before he signalled to the fans gathered behind stage two that he was OK.
Clayton and Schindler could only laugh at the bizarre scenes that had just unfolded.
The commentator remarked: “That is the most violent bounce out I think I have ever seen.”
Unfortunately for Schindler, the near-miss was not enough to jolt him into form as Clayton emerged victorious by a 10-4 margin.
Cross missed the incident at the time given he had his own sixth round encounter against Josh Rock to worry about.
But it wasn’t long before Cross became aware of the incident as a clip of Schindler’s mishap went viral.
Remarkably, Cross told talkSPORT’s Hawksbee and Jacobs he had some near-misses of his own over the years and had a cheeky pearl of wisdom for the German.
When asked if he had experienced a similar situation, Cross said: “Yeah, obviously they’re sharp objects.
talkSPORTCross joked Schindler needed to move a bit quicker to avoid being hit by his own dart[/caption]
“When you throw them at the board, sometimes you hit a wire dead-on. It’s going to come out as fast as what it went in, back at you.
“I actually seen it on social media, I think it stuck in his ankle or his foot there. A bit painful.
“He should learn to move a little bit faster, in my opinion.”
Unfortunately for Cross, he exited the UK Open at the same stage as Schindler following a 10-6 defeat to Rock.
It was the first time in three years Cross failed to reach the quarter-final stage of the tournament.
Cross will look to rebound when he and his seven Premier League rivals head to Brighton for night five of the tournament on March 6.
The man nicknamed ‘Voltage’ has won just two matches from six across the opening four nights of the tournament.
Those victories came against crowd favourite Stephen Bunting on night one and three-time world champion Michael van Gerwen on night four.
