‘He’s forgotten!’ – Littler’s rival Pikachu left red-faced after live TV blunder
DARTS star Ricardo Pietreczko forgot the rules at the World Grand Prix as he suffered a no score visit to the oche… but ended up WINNING the leg.
The German, nicknamed Pikachu, claimed a three-set victory over Dutch legend Raymond van Barneveld in Leicester on Monday night.
But not before he endured an embarrassing moment which resulted in him laughing off a hilarious blunder.
The World Grand Prix is the only televised event in which players must start and finish each leg on a double.
Unfortunately, this slipped Pietreczko’s mind as he began the second leg of the second set.
He threw a treble 20 before turning around and scratching his head having realised the mistake.
The darts commentator said: “He’s forgotten. There we go, it’s ages since that’s happened.
“Congratulations Ricardo Pietreczko, he’s forgotten it’s double start.”
Co-commentator John Part then added: “You haven’t really played up there until you do that”.
Pietreczko quickly recovered to win the leg with a checkout of 87, but did go on to lose the set 3-2 as Van Barneveld sent the match to a decider.
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Pietreczko won the third set 3-0 to set up a second round match against world champion Luke Humphries.
The German and teen sensation Luke Littler were embroiled in a bizarre spat following a game in March.
Littler beat the German 7-3 in their match at the Belgian Darts Open on his way to the title.
Following the contest, Pietreczko squared up to Littler on stage before unleashing a verbal volley in his direction.
Littler responded with a two-word retort but was later branded “arrogant” by Pietreczko.
The German wrote on his Instagram page: “So I appreciated a lot that you can play such a game at such an age. But I hope that arrogance punishes him.”
Littler responded: “That game, I don’t know what I did wrong.
“A lot of people were saying it was when I was on the 147 finish and I went for Treble 19.
“I then tried to go for tops and bull because I love tops. If I had hit the tops, I would have fancied myself for the bull. I missed it.
“He let that get to him throughout the game. I had the job to do.
“Ever since I’ve burst on to the scene, I know that every player wants to beat me.”