“HEY, my friend, let’s go through this together,” thought David Munyua as a wasp landed on his face in the middle of him taking part in a late contender for the sporting moment of 2025.

Munyua is competing for the first time in the World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace, London, which has been expanded this year to 128 players from all over the world, including 28 debutants.

The action ramped up a notch on Thursday, with the Kenyan and his buzzing companion playing a big role.

The wasp is usually batted away or avoided by players, but Munyua was not deterred.

His profession back home as a veterinarian perhaps gives him a greater ease with an insect that has become one of the features of this big annual darts event.

Munyua was two sets down in the first to three first round against 18th seed Mike De Decker, and at that point the Kenyan had odds of 275-1 to win the match.

But win it he did, spurred on by the wasp and the support from the crowd.

“I tried to put [the wasp] in my pocket to stay with me because I love going through tough things,” Munyua told the media after his match.

“I would do my stuff with it, whether I win or lose. I don’t know how it escaped.

“I’ve seen how it has been interfering with other players. You need maximum concentration, so when you have a little disturbance, you get over it.

“I tried to say to it, ‘You coming my way? You stay with me’.”

The wasp has become a feature at the Alexandra Palace sporting events held in the winter months, also appearing at the Masters snooker tournament in January.

It sometimes rests on a player’s shirt, going along for the ride harmlessly. Most players, once they become aware of its presence, will look to remove it, but that approach doesn’t always work out well.

Twelfth seed Ross Smith was cruising in the third set with a wasp sitting on his collar, taking a 2-1 lead against Andreas Harrysson and looking clear favourite to win the match.

Then, he looked up at the venue’s TV screens, which showed the wasp on the back of his shirt and promptly brushed it off. He went on to lose 3-2, knocked out in round one by the Swedish debutant.

Other players will also look to evade the insect or dismiss it if it lands on them.

One player, the Dutchman Jurjen van der Velde, even brought out some insect repellent and sprayed it around the oche before his defeat to compatriot Danny Noppert.

One bookmaker was even taking bets on the number of TV appearances the wasp would make.

The best moments in the World Darts Championship usually come after Christmas when the early rounds are completed, and the best players in the world are facing each other.

There is the occasional upset and dazzling debutant, but for the most part, the darts only really gets going in the new year.

Not this year.

Munyua’s win came on the same day as a victory for eccentric Japanese player Motomu Sakai, who wowed the crowd with his walk-on antics before following up his showmanship off the oche by knocking out Frenchman Thibault Tricole in another first-round upset.

Sakai’s compatriot Mitsuhiko Tatsunami, whose spectacles were almost in the Edgar Davids mould, faced former champion Michael van Gerwen and produced another of the tournament’s many entertaining entrances, or walk-ons as they have become known.

The crowd got behind Tatsunami, and he followed up his big entrance with a big moment at the oche, claiming the first set.

Unlike De Decker and Tricole, Van Gerwen didn’t buckle under the pressure from the crowd, who did everything they could to get behind Munyua, Sakai, and Tatsunami, and everything they could to put off their opponents.

Van Gerwen eventually won the game by three sets to one, despite not playing his best darts.

So much of this tournament, on this stage, is about getting the edge mentally, dealing with the crowd, and not letting external factors disrupt your game, but some players have already been through highly pressurised, potentially life-changing moments for semi-pro players, to get to this stage in the first place.

“There was more pressure in Africa than there is here,” Munyua said in his post-match press conference.

“Qualifying for the PDC was crazy. We have so many good players back there, who’ve been playing tournaments, participating in local, we call them ‘kamohe,’ which means ‘it’s either you do or die’ moments.

“So for me, I was like, ‘calm down, it has happened to you before, you can do it now.’

“It’s a big moment for the sport itself, for Africa, for Kenya,” Munyua added in his post-match interview with Sky Sports’ Abigail Davies.

“We can do it, the sport can grow, and I’m happy that I did my best.

“I was just being me, doing my stuff. I like the outcomes, I’m happy about the outcomes.”

Some players are buoyed by the additional atmosphere and pressure of this tournament, and some might even be hoping the Ally Pally wasp lands on them in the next round.