Featured Image Credit: Sky Sports
Topics: Sport
Joe Harker
While it might be a veritable cathedral to the joys of darts and snooker, there's one thing about Alexandra Palace which keeps tripping up those who compete there.
The venue, affectionately known as Ally Pally, has hosted the incredible rise of Luke Littler as the 16-year-old has risen to incredible fame at the World Darts Championship.
Through to the semi-finals tonight (2 January), Littler will want nothing to throw him off his game and certainly not the curse of Ally Pally which has left plenty injured over the years.
We are of course talking about the damn wasps which keep annoying people who compete there.
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Littler reckons he was stung on his arm by a wasp while playing darts and he's certainly not the only one to suffer the insect-related injury at Ally Pally.
Poor old Ross Smith was doing an interview with Sky Sports when the infamous Ally Pally wasp decided to take advantage of a stationery target.
He'd been chatting about how his game had improved over the past couple of years when he suddenly looked down at his arm and tried to shake something away.
"Ooh, there's the wasp! He's just done me, he's stung me like a good'un, little b****r, cor," the 34-year-old said after the wasp went for him and buried its sting in his arm.
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Stung multiple times by the wasp, which is apparently supposed to be a good luck sign even if it doesn't feel like it, Smith wrapped up the interview.
He later said he'd been stung three times by the Ally Pally wasp but fortunately not on his dart-throwing arm, unlike Luke Littler who had the misfortune of feeling something on his hand.
Being stung by the Ally Pally wasp is just an occupational hazard at this point as over the years plenty have felt the sting.
Last year Mark Williams was attacked by the wasp during a game of snooker against David Gilbert, and it had bugged Gilbert as well to the point that the officials had to try and help.
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Back in 2020 snooker referee Ben Williams was on the receiving end of the Ally Pally wasp's sting, having grabbed the interfering insect to stop it from messing with the game before it stung him.
Meanwhile, over the years plenty of darts players have been stung by the infamous pest.
Since wasps don't actually live that long the Ally Pally wasp isn't one malicious creature, it's a whole dynasty of them committed to upholding the fundamental truth that wasps are awful little s**ts.