Sheffield university darts society condemn fighting that led to event cancellation

Sheffield Dartsity, an annual event with competitors from the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University, came to an abrupt end midway through the sixth match of the tournament last night, due to a number of fights breaking out among people in the crowd.

The University of Sheffield darts society have now issued a statement on the incident, in which they critcise the behaviour of a 'small minority' of individuals.

They said: "We cannot condemn strongly enough the disgraceful behaviour of those who refused to respect the two teams and the staff.

"As a society we have tried to shed the negative image of darts, and make the sport something everyone can enjoy. We will not stop trying in spite of the events of last night.

"It is the worst scenario of all, that players who had worked hard to earn their place in the biggest darts event we will ever play in were not able to play and enjoy the occasion.

"The people who brought the night to an early end will not feel any remorse for their actions, or face punishment. The ones who will suffer are us, those who worked hard to put the event on and acted in the right spirit.

"We were also raising money for Roundabout, who do so much hard work for young homeless people in Sheffield. This event was meant to be some much-needed publicity for them, but that good deed went unnoticed among the violence. We will be raising money for an additional donation of top of the money we did manage to raise by way of an apology."

The statement goes on to say that organisers hope the violent end to the tournament will not prevent the annual event from returning next year.

They said: "Darsity has been a long-held dream of ours, and though last night it felt as though that dream had died, we will come back and try to hold Darsity in 2018. Last night's controversy will not defeat the Darts Society, either here or at Sheffield Hallam."

Police were reportedly called to the Octagon, where the event was held, just before 10pm last night.

It is not yet known whether any arrests were made.

Forge Sport, who were reporting on the event via Twitter for the University of Sheffield's Forge Press, shared a series of Tweets detailing the escalating situation at the Octagon.

They wrote: "Stop fighting in the crowd you pathetic tiny people," followed by: "Play has been suspended in favour of unintelligible shouting from both sides."

At 9.39pm Forge Sport confirmed Dartsity had been cancelled, and Tweeted: "Dartsity: Cancelled. Well done people"