SHOWMAN Peter Wright came dressed as the pot-bellied Grinch – and he stole Christmas from Mickey Mansell.
Snakebite, 52, promised an outlandish outfit on his return as the defending world darts champion following a month off the oche to look after his ill wife.
And he delivered that last night by arriving at Ally Pally in a red Santa top, luminous green hair, trousers and mitts, and having grown a big bushy white beard.
In honour of Dr Seuss’s memorable grouchy and mean-spirited character, it was the most OTT entrance ever
Well, since he wore the same crazy costume TWO YEARS AGO.
Mean Green Machine Wright – who took out a 121 finish on the Bull – will now play in the third round after Christmas after dropping only one leg in a 3-0 victory over an average opponent.
Wright said: “This is the Christmas Grinch, he’s accepted Christmas. He loves it instead of hating it.
“It’s taken me a month to grow the beard. I thought I’ve got nothing else to do apart from look after my wife Jo – so I thought I might as well grow a beard for Christmas.
“The entire outfit took two hours. Jo started getting it ready on Tuesday.”
GRANT SAMPSON caused the first upset of the 16-day tournament by beating world No.45 and highly-fancied Irishman Keane Barry 3-1 – and then got the BUS back to his hotel.
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The South African qualifier – who plays Belgian Kim Huybrechts today in the second round – used public transport to get to and from his nearby Wood Green digs.
Northern Irish thrower NATHAN RAFFERTY beat Jermaine Wattimena 3-2 on his debut appearance – a week after having his appendix taken out.
