Jose de Sousa produces trademark gaffe in first leg of Ryan Searle clash at Ally Pally
Ryan Searle #RyanSearle
Jose de Sousa is through to the last 16 of the PDC World Championships despite making his trademark blunder against Ryan Searle.
The Portuguese player came through an epic match 4-3 at Ally Pally, setting up a quarter final clash with 2021 winner Gerwyn Price. And that’s despite appearing anything but focused in the early going.
In the opening leg, de Sousa came to the oche needing to take out 71. So confusion reigned in the crowd when he opted to hit a single 20, followed by a treble 20.
And as he took aim for double 11, the call of “no score” stopped him in his tracks. The world No 17 then realised that, not for the first time in his career, he’d taken aim at the wrong checkout – thinking he was on Searle’s score of 102.
“He’s done it again,” said commentator Mark Webster. “He’s looked at 102 hasn’t he. He’s glanced over. It’s just a lack of concentration, he’s glanced over at Ryan’s score. It’s something he needs to eradicate in his game.”
Fortunately, it mattered little for him. After Searle failed to finish, a treble 13 left him needing 32, and he nailed it to take an early lead: “He’ll likely get away with it and it’s the first leg of the match. But if it happens at the business end….” added Wesbter.
Fans on Twitter were quick to point out it wasn’t the first such gaffe from de Sousa, with @mcmanus_conall asking: “When has this man not miscounted?” @AnnetteGillen1 added: “He’s a great player but that counting….”
@PSantaCruz9 suggested that even if he was going for 102, he chose a strange path: “Gone full senior – even if he looked at the wrong score he still went the wrong way.”
De Sousa can ill-afford to be so careless against world No 1 Price on Friday. ‘The Iceman’ was in rampant form to dispatch of Raymond van Barneveld 4-0 in his own third round tie.