‘What an absolute MESS' – James Wade blasts BA over ‘shocking customer service' days before World Matchplay Darts
The 42-year-old flew from Heathrow to Hamburg on Friday for the Baltic Sea Open but arrived without his luggage.
4
4
The eleven-time major winner was knocked out in Kiel, Germany, in the semi-finals by Scot Gary Anderson.
And to rub salt in the wounds, when he arrived back in the UK he discovered his luggage had never left the airport.
Wade claims he was told it would be delivered to his home but wasn't given a time scale, with the World Matchplay - which he won in 2007 - just days away.
The star took to X to complain about the situation in a long and detailed post recounting his frustrating experience.
Wade said: "British Airways what an absolute mess.
"Checked in for my flight to Hamburg on BA0974 from T5 Heathrow on Friday 11th July 2025, and said good bye to by luggage for what seems to be forever.
"Landed in Hamburg to the delight of no luggage. I was then told to expect my bag to be delivered to my hotel by 11:30 the next day. With frustration this never happened.
"On return to Heathrow today, I have been informed that the luggage has never moved from its current location and on request that BA return this to me in person.
"I have then been told that they are unable to return my personal and professional possessions and have to wait for their procedure of delivering the luggage to my home address with no specific time scale."
Wade's reference to "professional equipment" suggests his luggage included some of his darts equipment.
The timing of the loss could not be worse for the English thrower, who is not sure whether he will receive his items back before he leaves for his next major tournament.
He added: "With me leaving to attend the World Matchplay on Friday the 18th July 2025 in Blackpool you can appreciate this is not ideal preparation for one of the biggest major tournaments of the PDC calendar year.
"Absolutely shocking customer service."
He tagged British Airways' X account in the post.
Wade is the latest darts player to encounter luggage problems in recent weeks.
Gerwyn Price impressively managed to win the Poland Masters two weeks ago with newly bought darts that he had to file down after his signature set was lost in transit.
Meanwhile Ross Smith took to X on Friday to announce he'd also lost his luggage on the way to Hamburg - which he sarcastically labelled a "great start to the European Tour".
He was quickly joined later that day by Chris Dobey, who claimed in a post on X that he had received 'no communication' from British Airways after his baggage was lost.
British Airways have been contacted for comment.
In a previous statement regarding Friday's issues, a BA spokesperson said: "We're working really hard to get our customers' bags to them as quickly as possible following a failure of Heathrow Airport's baggage system on Friday.
"Whilst this was out of our control, we're sorry for the inconvenience caused."
4
4
List of all-time Darts World Champions
BELOW is a list of darts world champions by year.
The list does not include winners from the pre-Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) era or BDO world champions.
That means Raymond van Barneveld, for example, is only listed once - Barney also won four BDO titles - and none of Eric Bristow's five BDO titles are included.
1994 - Dennis Priestley
1995 - Phil Taylor
1996 - Phil Taylor (2)
1997 - Phil Taylor (3)
1998 - Phil Taylor (4)
1999 - Phil Taylor (5)
2000 - Phil Taylor (6)
2001 - Phil Taylor (7)
2002 - Phil Taylor (8)
2003 - John Part
2004 - Phil Taylor (9)
2005 - Phil Taylor (10)
2006 - Phil Taylor (11)
2007 - Raymond van Barneveld
2008 - John Part (2)
2009 - Phil Taylor (12)
2010 - Phil Taylor (13)
2011 - Adrian Lewis
2012 - Adrian Lewis (2)
2013 - Phil Taylor (14)
2014 - Michael van Gerwen
2015 - Gary Anderson
2016 - Gary Anderson (2)
2017 - Michael van Gerwen (2)
2018 - Rob Cross
2019 - Michael van Gerwen (3)
2020 - Peter Wright
2021 - Gerwyn Price
2022 - Peter Wright (2)
2023 - Michael Smith
2024 - Luke Humphries
2025 - Luke Littler
Most World Titles
14 - Phil Taylor
3 - Michael van Gerwen
2 - John Part, Adrian Lewis, Gary Anderson, Peter Wright
1 - Dennis Priestley, Raymond van Barneveld, Rob Cross, Gerwyn Price, Michael Smith, Luke Humphries, Luke Littler
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
22 minutes ago
- The Guardian
McIlroy vows ‘the story isn't over' as he revels in Royal Portrush support at the Open
Rory McIlroy has promised to revel in the Northern Irish love during the Open Championship this week, with the 36-year-old also warning fellow competitors that he has regained focus after claiming the Masters in April. 'The story certainly isn't over,' he insisted. McIlroy has returned to Royal Portrush for the first time since 2019, when he admitted the scale of ovation on the Open's first tee contributed to him whacking his ball out of bounds. He later missed the cut. Attention in the coming days promises to be even more intense, given his Masters win meant he became only the sixth golfer in history to complete a career grand slam. 'I think in '19 I probably tried to isolate,' McIlroy said on Monday. 'I think it's better for everyone if I embrace it. I think it's better for me. 'It's nice to be able to accept adulation, even though I struggle with it at times. But it's also nice for the person that is seeing you for the first time in a few years. It just makes for a better interaction and not trying to hide away from it. 'I think it's more of, embrace everything that's going to come my way this week and not try to shy away from it or hide away from it. I think that'll make for a better experience for everyone involved.' McIlroy was asked unsurprisingly to reflect on the first hole, six years ago, where he slumped to a quadruple‑bogey eight. He said: 'The walk to the first tee and then that ovation, I was a little surprised and a little taken aback, like: 'Geez, these people really want me to win.' I think that brought its own sort of pressure and more internally from myself, not really wanting to let people down. It's just something I didn't mentally prepare for that day or that week. 'I learned pretty quickly that one of my challenges, especially in a week like this, is controlling myself and controlling that battle. I talked about it at the Masters on that last day. The battle on that last day wasn't with Augusta National. It wasn't with Bryson DeChambeau. It wasn't with Justin Rose. The battle that day was with myself.' It certainly appears as if McIlroy has found an appropriate level of motivation. After only four hours of sleep, he played 18 Portrush holes first thing on Monday morning. McIlroy openly challenged the sense he will compete in the 153rd Open without any pressure, an event he had circled on the calendar at the start of 2025. Sign up to The Recap The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend's action after newsletter promotion 'I've done something that I've told everyone that I wanted to do,' McIlroy said. 'But I still feels like I have a lot more to give. Anyone that sits up here at this table, we're all competitors. We all want to do better. We all think we can just get a little bit extra out of what we have. The BBC has secured a last-minute deal to show an early evening highlights programme from The Open Championship in Portrush this week. The Guardian has learned that the R&A has agreed a new three-year deal with the BBC for highlights for the Open, which also covers the women's Championship, starting with the 2025 edition at Royal Porthcawl at the end of the month. The BBC's late move comes as a surprise and is a boost for the R&A and golf fans, as the corporation has shown little interest in the sport in recent years. A long-term contract for live rights to the Open was terminated a year early by the BBC in 2016, with Sky Sports taking over live coverage, and while they have shown highlights since then they had opted not to renew a contract that expired last year. The Rory McIlroy factor may have played a role in the BBC's decision to make a late bid, with the reigning Masters champion playing on his home course in Northern Ireland likely to boost interest amongst casual fans. BBC Sport sources have expressed the belief that they made an error of judgment in not attempting to show highlights of the Masters this year, with coverage of McIlroy's triumph at Augusta only available to viewers with Sky Sports. The Open is a more attractive property for the BBC however, due to the Championship's earlier finishing times in this country, which should deliver a bigger audience. As a result this week's highlights programmes are due to be shown at 9pm on Thursday and Friday before starting at 10pm on Saturday and Sunday. The R&A and BBC did not comment, but an announcement is expected in the next few days. Matt Hughes 'It's been an amazing year. The fact that I'm here at Portrush with the Green Jacket, having completed that lifelong dream, I want to do my best this week to enjoy everything that comes my way and enjoy the reaction of the fans and enjoy being in front of them and playing in front of them. But at the same time, I want to win this golf tournament and I feel like I'm very capable of doing that. 'I try to go about my business. I try to give the best of myself every time I'm out there. It's amounted to some pretty nice things so far. I still feel like there's a lot left in there.'
BBC News
28 minutes ago
- BBC News
Suffolk teen quit refereeing football due to abuse from parents
A teenage referee said he felt "forced" to quit officiating grassroots football due to the abuse he received from players' Sinclair, 18, from Lowestoft, Suffolk, started refereeing at age 14, the youngest age at which a person can become a match said he finally decided to stop refereeing last year when a player's mother invaded the pitch midway through a match and called him names. Suffolk County Football Association (FA) said it was committed to tackling and stamping out poor behaviour across the grassroots game. Describing the incident that led him to quit, he said: "I felt quite scared. She kept shouting at me, saying I was blind."Mr Sinclair said he reported the issues to host club Kirkley and Pakefield and Suffolk County FA directly. The FA's most recent Grassroots Disciplinary Review showed serious abuse and physical assaults on match officials had risen by about 17% in one year, from 1,451 to 1,716 in the 2023/2024 season. Mr Sinclair said he felt people did not take into consideration his age when he was officiating."It's not fair to verbally abuse someone a lot younger than you. There was a lot of name-calling and slurs," he said. He said he felt the atmosphere could change at tournaments if they got "rid of the parents" and added: "It's the only way I'd consider coming back." Mr Sinclair's mum, Jemma Sinclair, attended matches with him at the start of his career to help him deal with the abuse."It made me angry watching him being treated this way," she said."There were times I had to intervene with other parents to remind them that the referee is a child too."You wouldn't abuse a child walking down the street or playing on the swing the wrong way, so why shout at a child trying to help your [child] play football?"A spokesperson for Suffolk County FA said: "We cannot comment on individual cases but all incidents of reported misconduct, including abuse of referees, are thoroughly investigated and appropriate action taken."Tackling and stamping out poor behaviour across the grassroots game continues to be a key focus of the county FA." Henry and Alex, both 16, have been refereeing for nearly three years and said they had experienced abuse from match spectators."It's mainly the parents who give the abuse and try to influence the game," Henry said. The pair added they dealt with the behaviour by "keeping calm and trying to get their authority across"."There have been a few incidents that have nearly made me quit, but you just grow a thick skin and get on with it really," Alex Oakey, chairman of the Referees' Association, said: "We are continually dealing with reports of referees being attacked and abused."In the last three incidences… one included a 14-year-old referee being abused and then chased by the mother of an eight-year-old player at a youth tournament." Kevin Fryer, youth chairman of Kirkley and Pakefield Football Club, has worked with young referees but said "people forget the games are just a bit of fun".He recalled one under-11 girls' match was abandoned after the "parents were abusing the referee to an extent he felt he couldn't continue"."We've had referees reduced to tears, parents waiting in car parks for referees under 16 - it's just crazy," he Fryer said his club offered training courses to referees on how to deal with abuse on the pitch, and there was also a "system to show it's a newly qualified referee" on the pitch."It should be about kids having fun, but people take it way too seriously," he told the BBC. The club has a "respect line" - a painted pitch border at lower-level games and a physical barrier for the first team games - which spectators have to stand behind. It was hoped this would help reduce the abuse suffered by amateur referees and young parents at Kirkley and Pakefield said they understood that other parents were passionate, but they should also be said: "You do see parents forget the referees are children themselves sometimes."Another added: "They've got to start somewhere, and we need to, as parents, set an example."On its England Football website, the FA said playing the game at this age was about "being part of a team and understanding gameplay". A FA spokesperson added: "Everyone should be able to enjoy the game, including young match officials just starting out." Follow Suffolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
BBC News
28 minutes ago
- BBC News
Suffolk to host opening stages of Lloyds Tour of Britain Men race
Suffolk will host two stages of the Lloyds Tour of Britain Men cycle race later this year, it has been country's biggest professional cycling event will return to the county on 2 and 3 including Woodbridge, Southwold and Stowmarket will see tens of riders passing through during the comes a year after the county hosted the final stage from Lowestoft to Felixstowe. East Suffolk will host the first stage of the race, starting in Woodbridge and ending in Southwold. A day later the second stage of the race will start and finish in Stowmarket. This year's event will mark the first time since 2012 that the overall race has begun in the county, with a debut for Woodbridge as a host venue. While Southwold has never hosted the men's race, it has twice seen the women's race visit. The exact stage routes will be published later in July while other host venues for the other four stages will be announced over the coming that will see the race pass through include Debenham, Eye, Sudbury, Hadleigh, Wickham Market, Aldeburgh, Saxmundham, Framlingham, Halesworth, Bungay and Beccles. Sarah Whitelock of East Suffolk Council said she was "excited" to welcome the tour back to the district, which was echoed by Andy Mellen, leader of Mid Suffolk District Ward, leader of Babergh District Council, described the race as a "fantastic opportunity".Jonathan Day, managing director of British Cycling Events, added: "We are delighted to begin our announcements with the news that East Suffolk will host the opening stage, and two new venues – Woodbridge and Southwold – will appear on the Lloyds Tour of Britain Men map. "Then moving onto stage two and a huge thanks to our partners at Babergh and Mid Suffolk, which will see Stowmarket become the third new venue for the men's race, ensuring a fantastic opening two days in the beautiful Suffolk countryside." Follow Suffolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
