Chatting Bull with Dan Dawson - Issue #022

Not in this sport, pal. However, perfection is still pretty damn good.This last week in Blackpool, we saw the most perfect of perfect legs. It is the first time on television that both players have been on nine-darters, only for one of them to hit it, denying the other even a shot at it. Fittingly, it involved the eventual champion Luke Littler.

There is a sheer statistical beauty to it: 15 perfect darts in total from “The Nuke” and his opponent Josh Rock, not a single one missing a target. Rock saw the leg won by Littler’s 141 checkout, without even getting a chance to take out the identical shot himself. The Northern Irishman had a losing average in that leg of 180. He could have literally done no more.

Curiously, this is not the first high profile case of “the perfect leg”. The emerging German talent Niko Springer hit one in the PDC Europe Superleague in 2023 on a live streamed board against the veteran Manfred Bilderl.

You could make a case that this was an even more impressive feat than the Littler-Rock encounter - Bilderl hit a 171 (three treble-19s), a 174 (two treble-19s and a treble-20), but was not given a shot at the remaining 156 because Springer had already checked-out 141, after dropping his second dart of the visit on the floor and having to retrieve it! However, given the status of Littler and Rock’s game in the semi-finals of the Matchplay, it would take a contrarian of considerable commitment to argue Springer-Bilderl surpassed it in terms of greatness.

But even these most perfect of perfect legs are not as captivating as the greatest leg: Michael Smith versus Michael van Gerwen in the 2023 World Championship final. In that instance, both men were on for a nine-darter, van Gerwen missed the double, and Smith hit. You know the case: it is the leg that spawned a thousand memes, the leg of darts that was heard around the world, the best leg… and yet, it was not quite perfect.

That is because darts is a game about missing, just as much as it is about hitting. The drama comes from the misses, from the mistakes. To remove them only turns darts into a relatively simple counting exercise. Darts players miss their intended targets more than they hit them - if they get to 50% of targets hit, they are hitting 12 darters regularly and threatening to break records.

Darts is compelling as a contest because it is hard, but occasionally players like Rock, Littler, and even Manfred Bilderl can make it look easy. The nuggets of gold they produce can be thrilling, but it is the misses that make the drama… and that is why, sometimes, there is such a thing as better than perfect.

Issue #022 Quiz Answers

1) Phil Taylor Trophy
2) Adrian Lewis
3) 170

Want to test your darts knowledge? Sign up to the Target Darts newsletter for the next quiz.

Sign up to the Target Darts newsletter where we will send you the next issue directly to your inbox and also keep you updated on the latest news, products, and offers.