16-Year-Old Darts Phenom Pulls off Rare Feat in World Series of Darts Debut

Ahmad Austin Jr.Jan 19th, 2024, 4:06 pm
 

English darts player Luke Littler continued to shock the sports world when he achieved a rare feat in his very first World Series of Darts tournament.

The 16-year-old first turned heads in the 2024 Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) qualifying when he swept Dutch pro Christian Kist in the first round. In the following rounds, he’d go on to defeat several other top players in route to become the youngest player to compete in a PDC final. Littler was defeated in the final by world no. 1 Luke Humphries.

This week, Littler competed in the Bahrain Masters as part of the PDC’s World Series of Darts. In the first leg of his quarterfinal match against fellow English player Nathan Aspinall, Littler pulled off a “nine-darter” – completed one leg of the match in just nine darts.

In professional darts, each player has 501 points and must hit certain sections of the board to bring their score down to zero. Boards are split into 20 sections. If a dart is hit in one of the larger parts of the section, it’s worth that exact number of points. If a dart lands in one of the rings, however, the score is multiplied depending on the ring. The ring in the middle is known as the triple ring, while the one on the outside is the double ring. The highest-value part of the entire board is the triple ring in the 20 section, worth 60 points.

To open the match, Littler managed to get three 60s for a total of 180. After watch Aspinall throw his darts, Littler stepped up and scored another 180 to a roaring crowd. With 360 points down, he needed just 141 more.

That’s when some quick math comes into play for darts players. To complete a leg, the final dart must land in the double ring to bring the player’s score down to exactly 0. With 141 points, the most common strategy is a triple 20 (60), triple 19 (57), and then a double 12 (24). As soon as Little final dart landed in the double 12 space, he turned to the crowd as they cheered even louder. Aspinall, with a smile on his face, clapped for the teenager basking in the historic moment. The two shared a hug before beginning the next leg.

Littler became the youngest player to ever throw a perfect leg in a tournament, beating the record set by Dutch legend Michael van Gerwen. Later on that evening, he defeated van Gerwen in the championship final.

Watch above via Professional Darts Corporation

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