World No.2 Luke Humphries even cupped his ears toward the crowd after knocking out Luke Littler in the semi-final, visibly irritated by the noise echoing around the arena.
Earlier in the evening, Littler had his own moment with the spectators. After landing a huge checkout during his narrow quarter-final win over Gerwyn Price, the teenager threw his arms up and down toward the crowd in celebration as the atmosphere intensified.
Former professional player Matt Edgar believes the whistling trend among fans dates back to comments made by 16-time world champion Phil Taylor, who once admitted it was the one type of crowd noise he simply couldn’t tolerate.
Speaking to OLBG, Edgar explained: “Phil Taylor is to blame for this. If you go back to the days of wrestling and Stone Cold Steve Austin with the ‘what’ chants, it became an annoying way for fans to interact with the performer during a promo.
“I remember an interview where Phil Taylor was asked about crowd noise. He said he didn’t mind the atmosphere, but the one thing he couldn’t stand was whistling. From that point it almost felt like people thought, ‘Right, let’s get on his back and whistle to put him off.’
“Somehow that habit has stuck around. It seems to stem from that moment when Taylor said it bothered him. Fans almost try to take centre stage themselves — that’s what they’re doing.”
Pundit Charlie Murphy was inside the arena in Nottingham and said the whistling was impossible to ignore, urging supporters to cut it out.
He said: “Last night you could really hear it, and we were quite close to the stage, so we were getting a similar experience to what the players would have felt. It was loud, constant and really frustrating.
“It was happening when players were going for doubles as well. It clearly fired up Luke Littler and Luke Humphries at times, but it also frustrated Humphries during that match.
“Honestly, just stop it. You’re ruining it for everyone. Glenn Durrant called the people doing it morons, and I completely agree.
“If you’re going to whistle like that, don’t even bother turning up.”
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