Gary Anderson says he deliberately lost to Adrian Lewis in 2011

  • Published

World champion Gary Anderson has revealed he deliberately lost a Premier League match against Adrian Lewis at Glasgow's SECC in 2011.

Scot Anderson, 44, led the match 3-0 but, with Lewis suffering "disgraceful" abuse, allowed the Englishman to reel off eight legs in a row to secure an 8-3 victory.

When asked if he intentionally lost, Anderson told BBC Scotland: "Yes.

"I didn't want to win a game where that happened; I thought it was a disgrace."

What is the Premier League?

A 10-man tournament played in a round-robin format (though only eight competed in 2011). The top four players qualify for the semi-finals, which take place on the same night as the final. Anderson took home £200,000 for winning this year's event.

Anderson subsequently issued a statement on social media, external, saying he "would never intentionally lose a match".

It its own statement, the Professional Darts Coorporation said: "Although we can see how Gary's comments may have been misconstrued, we have confidence in the integrity of Gary and all our players, and would not want a slip in an interview to undermine this."

Lewis, 30, had beer thrown at him during his entrance to the arena, and coins were thrown onto the stage during the match.

"It was bad that night," said Anderson, who beat Lewis 10-4 in the final two months later.

"I'm a proud Scotsman but when that happened, it sickened me. Aidy is a good friend of mine. It was terrible."

Anderson said it was not "right" for him to win the game.

He added: "If I'm going to play a game, I'm going to play it right. With them doing that, Aidy couldn't play with that going on."

Anderson, who beat Phil Taylor in January's PDC World Championship final, says abuse of that magnitude is something he rarely encounters on the darts circuit.

"I play all over the world and I had never seen it before," he added.

"It cheesed me off. I don't know why it happened, and I hope it will never happen again."

A statement from the Professional Darts Corporation said: "Although we can see how Gary's comments may have been misconstrued, we have confidence in the integrity of Gary and all our players, and would not want a slip in an interview to undermine this."

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