CRABTREE REVEALS CLASSY VAN DEN BERGH GESTURE HE WILL NEVER FORGET
01/06/2026 By Aaron Nijjar
CAM CRABTREE says Dimitri Van den Bergh’s classy gesture at his first ProTour event left a lasting impression.
The world No69 revealed the Belgian star approached him out of the blue while he was practising alone and offered words of encouragement after seeing him win a Challenge Tour event.
Shazam earned his PDC Tour Card back in 2025 by finishing sixth on the UK Q-School Order of Merit.
But Crabtree was taken aback that a player of Van den Bergh’s stature had gone out of his way to offer advice.
He said on TikTok: “I absolutely love Dimi. My first ever ProTour I got there really early, my dad was with me.
“I didn’t really know anyone. I knew Martin Lukeman and Ritchie Edhouse from local tournaments.
“Obviously I knew who everyone was but not personally. So I am practising on the practice boards on my own.
“Dimi comes up to me and he taps me on my shoulder. I was kind of thinking who would that be because I don’t know any of these people.
“Or at least none of these people know who I am.
“So I turned around and Dimi said to me, ‘You’re Cam, aren’t you?’
“I said yeah because I was thinking, ‘How do you know that and why do you care?’
“He said, ‘I saw when you won your Challenge Tour event.
“‘I just wanted to say try your best and try to enjoy it.
“‘You are only young so treat the Development Tour like what you are trying to work really hard on.
“‘There is no pressure on you. You are not trying to defend a ranking.
“‘If you can win something then brilliant and if not try and take all the experiences that you can.
“‘All the best today.’”
Crabtree admitted he was touched by the exchange and believes it speaks volumes about the former World Matchplay champion.
He added: “I thanked him and then I thought that was really nice.
“He didn’t have to do that. Even if he had seen that I had won he didn’t have to say anything.
“But he went out of his way to do that and I just thought that says a lot about the sort of person Dimitri is.
“I get on with him great now. I speak to him quite a bit.
“He’s a lovely guy and a great player.
“When he is playing well he is phenomenal to watch.
“I really like Dimitri, really nice guy and he supports Arsenal so that makes him even better.”
Crabtree has underlined his promise by reaching Players Championship semi-finals in each of the last two seasons.
The 22-year-old also stunned Jonny Clayton 5-1 at the Grand Slam of Darts with a superb 102.07 average, though he narrowly missed out on the knockout stages after finishing third in his group.
Image by Taylor Lanning.
