Jonny Clayton was beaten by Jose de Sousa in the European Championship after a cruel miscount error gifted the Portuguese star, who is often blighted by his own poor maths skills.
Jonny Clayton made a calamitous miscounting error against serial miscounted Jose de Sousa in the Darts European Championship.
Clayton crashed out of the tournament at the Westfalenhalle in Dortmund, Germany, losing 6-4 to ‘The Special One’. That was after the Welshman made a huge mistake, miscounting his tally and suffering a 'no score'.
The Ferret’s momentum was derailed as De Sousa progressed to the next round, where he will face James Wade on Saturday. And fans couldn’t believe the irony of Clayton miscounting against the Portuguese star, who is renowned for making the same mistake regularly.
One fan tweeted: “Against Jose as well hahaha, incredible,” while another wrote: “Hahaha oh dear.”
A third added: “Had to be against Jose as well,” while a fourth commented: “No way that is cruel.”
Others chimed in by tweeting: “2 biggest miscounters in the game it was going to happen” and: “Nail that and he wins.”
Having gifted De Sousa the leg, Clayton was seen sporting a look of surprise before rubbing his forehead in disbelief, having caught on late. He was even offered a consoling hug from his opponent as he made his way back to the oche.
De Sousa’s lack of mathematic ability famously haunted him during the World Cup of Darts back in June when he served up a doozy against Lithuania in Frankfurt. Before that, in 2021, the Portuguese player was dumped from the PDC World Darts Championship in his third-round match against Alan Soutar.
De Sousa was level on sets with his opponent but had the chance to draw ahead in the fifth with a 2-1 lead and 88 remaining. He hit 20, and then did so again, before realizing that left him with no checkout.
