Sky Sports pundit John Part was awkwardly called out by a colleague during a live broadcast after he made an embarrassing mistake. The former darts player and three-time world champion is a regular on the channel and has been providing expert analysis during this year’s World Darts Championship. He was in the studio over the weekend as the crowd at Alexandra Palace were treated to a packed schedule of first-round matches.

Before the start of Saturday’s afternoon session, Part was running the rule over Mario Vandenbogaerde’s upcoming match against David Davies. He named Vandenbogaerde, who is Belgian, as the favourite to get over the line and book his place in the second round. However, the Canadian pundit made a grave error when he got the player’s nationality wrong.

“I’m going to go with the Dutchman,” said Part with confidence, before his colleague Dan Dawson clapped back: “Well, he’s Belgian, but close enough.” There was a brief moment of silence before Dawson started awkwardly laughing and Part followed suit.

To add insult to injury, Part was left red-faced when his prediction went up in smoke as Davies cruised to a 3-1 victory over Vandenbogaerde.

The man from Toronto clinched his first world title in 1994 before achieving further successes in 2003 and 2008. He went on to suffer a drop in the rankings and lost his tour card in 2019.

Part also dealt with a persistent shoulder injury during the lockdown period but still harbours ambitions of returning to the highest level, having signed up for next year’s World Seniors tournament.

Speaking to DartsNews in the summer, he explained: “I got a rotator cuff injury from my dog. It was in the middle of 2020 and I couldn’t get it seen to.

“By the time I got an image [X-ray], it was fine, but then I had a frozen shoulder and had to stop throwing for six months. I’ve been working back to it since.

“I’m not too sure exactly what my capabilities are. I feel like I’m improving all the time but I’m not sure what the ceiling is. I’m still working at it and we’ll find out, I suppose. I’m getting mixed bits of success here and there.

“I still have that love to play and to compete. I still enjoy it, I just wish the timing was a little different. I imagine, if I can give it a go again, I will. I like testing myself.”

Part has already stated his ambition to participate in Q-School, which takes place after the World Darts Championship, in an effort to regain his tour card.