NATHAN ASPINALL was left in stitches after a ref responded “I can’t tell you that” to his bizarre question.
The darts star was in action on Thursday for Event 29 of the Players Championship.
Aspinall found himself up against pal and Premier League rival Michael Smith in a third round clash.
Things did not go to plan for The Asp, who crashed out with a 6-3 defeat.
But both men were all smiles following an amusing incident in the final leg.
Smith left himself with just 16 points to seal victory.
While Aspinall faced a daunting task with a total of 236.
And hilariously, he asked the ref “can I leave a finish?” before hurling his darts at the board.
However, the man by the board had a blunt response, saying: “I can’t tell you that.”
This left everyone giggling, including the judge.
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And as it stood, Aspinall was unable to leave a finish as he took his points tally down to 194.
Smith appeared to laugh uncontrollably as he stepped up to the plate.
Yet he made no mistake with his checkout as he secured the win.
Last month Aspinall revealed he was nearing a darts comeback after undergoing painful treatment on an elbow injury.
He said: “I had to go back to the Matchplay and give it my all to try and defend my title, but I knew it was never going to happen. Obviously, after that I made the call to pull out of everything and get it done.
“It’s been a tough couple of months for me, but there’s light at the end of the tunnel. The treatment has gone fantastically and we’re not far off coming back!
“I’ve just been back to the hospital to get all of my results and basically, in a nutshell, I’ve had all these tendon problems, golfer’s elbow, tendonitis.
“So I’ve had six or seven treatments of shockwave therapy, plus rehab, but I was just still getting a lot of pain and a lot of swelling in my elbow.
“There’s basically a bone in my elbow joint that’s rubbing into things. So I need to have an injection with something called plasma directly into my elbow joint. That’s the last piece of the puzzle.”
