Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) referee Kirk Bevins has released a strongly-worded social media statement after a fan 'grabbed' him at the Austrian Darts Open. Fellow ref Huw Ware was also caught up in the altercation with Bevins, who has been a TV official for more than a decade.

A star-studded field turned out to go for glory in Graz including Michael van Gerwen, Stephen Bunting and Luke Littler, with the latest instalment of the European Tour taking players and referees alike over to Austria.

While there, Bevins has revealed that he was 'grabbed and pulled away' by a fan while posing for a photo. And the 37-year-old addressed the incident on social media to make it categorically clear that such behaviour is 'not ok'.

He wrote on X: "To the Austrian darts 'fan' who grabbed me and pulled me away from her mate having a photo with me and [Huw Ware] when he asked us both for a photo...just because I wasn't in my PDC uniform and you didn't know who I was...it was NOT OK to grab me and pull me away."

Bevins, nicknamed 'The Kirkulator', first gained notoriety for winning a series of Channel 4's Countdown in 2009. Soon afterwards he quit his full-time job as a maths teacher and began pursuing a career in darts refereeing, aided by 14-time world champion Phil Taylor.

"The word got around that I had won Countdown, and several players went to the tournament director to say ‘Kirk is very good’," Bevins explained. "Phil Taylor – one of the greatest ever players – said, ‘you need to be on TV’. I said, ‘you’re the man to get me there’.

"He spoke to the tournament director, and they asked me if I wanted to do it on telly. It was really cool. I practised in the shower, out in the field... I’d change to see what it sounded like and then over the years it gets better. Even things like slowing my speech to build tension – as a darts fan I knew that would be a good thing to do."

The Austrian Darts Open comes to a close on Sunday evening, with Littler aiming to build on his recent Premier League Darts triumph in Liverpool by adding another European Tour title to his CV.

The 17-year-old is in scintillating form, averaging 106 in a win over Damon Heta on Saturday and just shy of a ton to book his spot in the semi-finals with a deciding-leg victory over Danny Nopert.