A rare officiating error disrupted a second-round match at Players Championship 1 in Hildesheim on Monday, involving William O'Connor and Mario Vandenbogaerde. The incident occurred in the third leg, after O'Connor had beaten Yorick Hofkens in the opening round and the match stood at 1-1, with Vandenbogaerde having leveled by hitting double eight in the second leg.
O'Connor opened the third leg with a score of 44, but the referee then realized a mistake: Vandenbogaerde should have started the leg instead. After a brief pause, officials decided to void the leg entirely and restart it with scores wiped, effectively rolling back the match temporarily. PDC commentator Abigail Davies expressed surprise, saying, "Have you ever seen this because I've never seen the like of this," while former pro Paul Nicholson added, "I can't say that I've seen that before on the stream anyway. Seen it in the old days when we had the pen and the board on the wall. But the leg has been scrubbed."
O'Connor remained composed after the restart, reeling off five straight legs to seal a convincing 6-1 victory over Vandenbogaerde.
