This week the Premier League darts juggernaut plonks itself in Brighton for week seven of this year's extravaganza, hoping to restore its tarnished reputation following last week's Glasgow disgrace.
The Scottish darts 'fans' did nothing to disabuse the rest of the United Kingdom of the drunken yob stereotype that exists in many a person's mind when the country of Scotland is discussed. In fact, they seemed determined to strengthen that stereotype.
It was supposed to be World Championship runner-up Gary Anderson's glorious homecoming as he competes in his first Premier League campaign. The fact the proud Scot was due to play his world final conqueror Adrian Lewis in Glasgow only added humongous excitement and anticipation to the affair.
Yet, in complete contrast, the excitement and anticipation of the 6,000-strong Scottish crowd transformed itself into mindless and unnecessary aggression and antagonism, and the evening into a completely numbing experience for the sport.
I must admit, when I saw several plastic cups of booze soak Lewis half way through his walk-on, thrown at him by the apparently fervent supporters of their fellow Scot Anderson, I laughed. I thought it would be laughed off by Lewis as he dried himself with the towel he was chucked immediately after he got onto the stage - he knew he was in for a tough time with every last person cheering on their beloved 'Flying Scotsman', and the Premier League has become all about a little rowdiness and banter with the players.
But Lewis was not impressed, and he was to become even less jovial as the match got underway.
Booing, chanting and a general ear-piercing din has become the norm at Premier League nights, and the added test of the players who play in it is to deal with the noise and pandemonium within the crowd. The players might not like it, but they pay lip-service to the atmosphere everywhere they go now because that is the animal darts has grown into - and it makes them money. But in Glasgow last week things got dreadfully out of hand.
Anderson seemed cool and deep in concentration as he drifted into a 3-0 lead, his darts greeted with jubilant cheers, Lewis' darts with deafening boos. But as Lewis kept flinching and then pausing at the oche, it became apparent something was untoward - coins were being thrown onto the stage by a minority of brainless ultra-rowdys.
A remarkable silence pervaded the vast SECC arena as Lewis managed to win the fourth leg, and as he continued his spirited fightback, despite being continually targeted by the coin-throwers and having to block out the incredibly vociferous boos each time he stepped up to the oche, he went into the break at 3-3. I hoped after the short interval the crowd might calm down. Unfortunately it did not happen.
The barrage of boos continued and a couple more pieces of small change were lobbed. Anderson had already surrendered a 3-0 advantage and the crowd were clearly beginning to have more of an adverse affect on him than Lewis.
Although increasingly embarrassed at the despicable behaviour of his home crowd, Anderson refused to interact with his 'supporters' until, at 5-3 down, he stopped, turned to the crowd with a menacing scowl and then went to pick up one of the thrown coins that had laid to rest to the left of the board. From the moment he placed the coin in his top pocket and snarled what lip-readers could clearly decipher as 'fucking pricks' towards the crowd, there was an incredible, sudden change in the atmosphere. Finally the Scottish masses realised Anderson, their darting hero they all looked up to, was thoroughly ashamed of them.
The rest of the match was played out in relative calm, the atmosphere having changed dramatically from truly sinister to bizarrely eerie. Anderson was fuming at the treatment his people had dished out to his opponent and the current world champion of the sport. He had the look of a man who was genuinely sick to his stomach, as if he had just walked in on his wife in bed with another man - immediately after his outburst it was pure anger, and it slowly developed into a numbness. Thus he continued to miss his doubles and lost 8-3.
It was undoubtedly the most remarkable darts match for all the wrong reasons I have ever seen.
This week sees another former World Championship final match-up, with Mark Webster facing Simon Whitlock first up - Webster beat Whitlock in the 2008 BDO World Championship final at Frimley Green. Let's hope it is a match that stands out for very different reasons to the ones witnessed in the last Premier League match.
Poor Brighton, having to pick up the pieces from the opprobrium of Glasgow.
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