A student has told how he was injured after a darts match descended into chaos.
The event, which took place at the Leadmill on Monday evening, was an ‘unofficial’ Varsity darts match between the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University.
One Hallam student, Todd Wells, told Shef News he had to go to A&E at the Northern General Hospital after a hard plastic cup was thrown at his face, gashing open the bridge of his nose.
According to Mr Wells, who studies Law, the hospital saw an influx of patients following the fracas which broke out at the student darts competition.
“To be honest I’m quite lucky with where the cup hit me as anywhere else on my face would have been a lot deeper,” he said.
“This was almost inevitably going to happen to someone as these hard plastic cups were being picked up off the floor by spectators from both universities and being launched at the opposite side.”
Mr Wells left the event after only an hour, and when he arrived at A&E said that there were already four people from the darts match waiting there.
The 20-year-old student added: “From what I saw, a lot of people got hurt. Even just people trying to enjoy the darts and not getting involved with the rest.
“I saw two poor girls get flattened when it started kicking off in the middle, and countless people getting these plastic cups to the head.”
The event ‘Dartsity’ has had to run unofficially since 2017 after a brawl broke out between rival fans.
Last year the event was held at The Octagon up on the University of Sheffield’s campus, the crowd was separated by barriers, and only soft plastic cups were distributed by the bar.
Mr Wells said he believes a major contributor to the damage and violence this time around was the fact that the crowd was mixed with no barriers separating the two sets of students, and that the bar was giving out hard cups.
A spokesman from Hallam Darts Club said: “There were already security measures in place to ensure something like this doesn’t happen again.
“Unfortunately some individuals who attended the event just came with a clear intention in mind to start and take part in fights and this is something we seriously condemn.
“After the second game had finished we felt like the event ran smoothly with less of these problems occurring.
“Overall we would like to say our thanks to The Leadmill and their team of workers for helping keep the event on despite some early troubles. These individuals are old enough to know better!”