This is the Guardian. Today, from the pub to the palace, how darts got massive.
It is a rather drizzly December evening and I'm standing outside Alexandra Palace in North London which in recent years has become the home of darts in the UK and even just standing outside the venue there are incredible scenes walking up from the train station we were passed by a pack of zebras there was a bunch of minions all sorts all human life is here
and this is my first time at the darts and I'm not quite sure what chaos will await me inside these hallowed halls, but I really want to understand what is it about darts that has captured the nation's heart, the world's heart in fact. Walking into the grand hall of Alexandra Palace with the World Championships in full flow is an assault on all of the senses.
The air smells like a brewery, and everyone is singing themselves for us. It's part Oktoberfest, parts stag and hen do, with more than 3,000 people, most of them in fancy dress, going nuts. For the newcomer, there is a lot to learn. How on earth do the players get their nicknames?
Why is it a good spectator sport? And why is everyone here holding out for the magical mythical nine-dark finish? It's crazy. It's crazy to even think I'm in the World Championship final, my debut.
After a then 16-year-old loop littler took last year's tournament by store. Tickets for this year sold out in record time, so I'm very lucky to be here. It was my first time at the darts, unless you count decidedly amateur sessions at my local pub. And tonight is the grand final at Allie-Pally, with the winner scooping half a million pounds and fans watching on TV all over the world.
Still just 17 years old, Luke Littler is hoping to become the youngest ever world champion when he steps up to the Oki tonight. From the Guardian, I'm Helen Pitt. Today in focus, the joy of the arrows and the hunt for a nine-daughter.
Before setting off for Alexandra Palace, I realized I need an expert to prepare me for what awaits and so that I don't come across as too much of a rookie. And happily, Jonathan Liu, one of the Guardian's sports writers, has gallantly agreed to be my guide. Thank you, Jonathan. Absolutely. I mean, the church of darts is very much an evangelical church. So we want to spread the gospel. We want to spread the word. Let me be your moral and spiritual guide on this sacred journey.
A lot of people might be listening to this and thinking, well, he's a sports writer. What's he doing at the darts? Darts isn't a sport. What would you say to them? Well, I think throughout society, throughout the history of British society, different things have been regarded as sports and not, you know, fox hunting was one of the most popular sports in this country in the 18th century, bare knuckle fighting in the 19th century. And I think, you know, the next century, we might see things like esports regarded as genuine sport.
I think the only real way of defining what a sport is is what the society, what the culture of the day say it is. And when it comes to darts, this particular society is very much voting with its feet and its eyeballs. And what does darts offer the spectator? Because on paper, it should be a terrible spectator sport, at least outside the pub setting where you are not close enough to actually see the darts sport.
Yeah, I guess it works on two levels. The first level is the colour, the occasion, the setting, the rasmataz you might be most clear. The great darts commentator Sid Woodell, he wants to compare darts to a Christmas cracker. You need the frilly colourful stuff around it as much as you need the bit that bangs in the middle.
But when it comes to the bangs in the middle, the fine line between triumph and disaster. The sheer infinitesimal margins between a dart going where it's supposed to go and the dart missing its target.
We go down through it because here we have the two best players on the planet. Draw an oxygen through their nostrils at the moment. And the sheer amount of skill involved. The amount of lock involved sometimes. You could hear a blob of vinegar dropping a chip in this hole. League requires 140.
And until the moment that that dart hits the bed, you have no idea whether that dart is a success or a failure. And I think that that moment is incredibly visceral sensation to go through.
I have to admit, before starting this episode, I had just about heard of a 180, but that was about it. And so for those of us who really don't know very much about darts, can you briefly explain the aim of the game? Well, you start with 501. You have to get down to exactly zero, using the numbers on the board.
There's an outer ring which doubles the score that you hit. There's an inner ring which trebles the score that you hit. And you have to finish on a double number. So that can be double 20. If you need 40, it could be double 16 if you need 32. 2-16, Barney! Beauty! Well, it's not going to miss 41 after the other three.
I'm inside the fanzo at Ali-Pelly, considering a jumbo hot dog, where my producer, Tom, spots a famous commentator from the darts world.
So we're here with an absolute legend in the dance world, Russ Bray. Thank you for taking the time to talk to us. This was my first time in early Pali today. Oh really? What a treat. I don't know. Yeah, why do you think it's supposed to be so popular? Well dance. Dance is dance is one of the hardest folks in the world. Oh, as much as people, you know, it is. You try throwing three darts at a triple train and hitting it. It is an easy. Now the thing is, a lot of people love the fact that you've got person on person.
One on one. You know, you haven't got to have a team or anything like that. No one guesses how good you are. I like in some spokes where you have to have judges. If you don't hit the double, you lose. Simple as. And you try to win that in front of 5,000 batting fans. When you've got a dot in your end, you've got rid of the double and you're going to win half a million.
That's the excitement of the sport, and that's what the sport's all about. Because we may be getting you to do your infamous 180 call. Absolutely. Are you ready? I'm going to sit back a bit here. We're backstage at Alipali with another legend of the dance world, who's willing to tolerate my very basic questions.
My name is John Park. I'm a three-time world champion. Yeah, I've been a commentator for the better part of 20 or, no, 30 years. Uh-oh. I know the game pretty well. And did you have a nickname when you were playing? Well, my nickname is Darth Maple because I'm Canadian. Yes. It's giggly. Yeah, I always use a John Williams Imperial March walk-on music. John Park!
And this is my first time ever at the darts. So what do I need to watch out for tonight?
Well, first of all, I mean, there's a room full of people having a lot of fun watching. They like to get involved. They like to chant and giving any opportunity to wave the 180 banners. So they're looking for 180s or high finishes or maybe 170 finish, we call it a big fish. They like that a lot. If somebody starts hesitating as a player up there a lot, going for a double or something, then they like to involve themselves with hitting a double by making them sound. And I don't know if that helps or hinders the player, but they sure like doing it.
A basic question, but why do you love darts? What makes it so special? To darts, it looks really simple. Just take this through it there. It shouldn't really be a problem, right? I can pick up a rock and hit something that close. You would think, you imagine you can. I think this is the everyone's first conception of how easy it'll be, is soon dashed. I think the first matches are starting, so we'll probably go out to the arena and soak up some of the atmosphere there.
Oh, they're all standing up because they love the dance. The dance. It's amazing all the fancy dress, there's like Elvis's, there's cowboys, there's nuns, there's people with traffic cones on their heads. There's bananas, there's a whole pack of middle-aged brownies. It's really quite something. Before I got there, Jonathan had tried to prepare me for the spectacle that awaited.
This whole culture has grown up around spectator darts. I mean, I was there on the first night of the tournament. I think it's fair to say that a lot of spectators at the darts aren't really watching the darts a lot of the time. Most of the time, they're singing Stand Up If You Love the Darts, or they're singing the Yaya Touré song. How does that go? It goes...
Colo, colo, colo, colo, colo, colo, colo, colo, colo, torre, yah, yah, yah, yah, yah, and then repeat that for about 10 to 15 minutes. So why are they singing that? Why are they singing a football song? Because it's fun. That's genuinely it. It's just a great crowd. Sing along, but you can carry on for 10, 15 minutes. I've been to dog tournaments in Germany, and the German fans are singing it. Colo, torre, and yah, so we never played in Germany.
There's no connection there. It's just become a DOTS classic. Same with Hey Baby by DJ Ozzie. These things, you couldn't engineer them. You couldn't stage manage that. It's just something that has been adopted into the tapestry of DOTS. Is this your first time of the DOTS? Absolutely not. No, this is multiple, multiple times. I've come every single year. We're missing it for the world.
And what makes it so special being here at Ally College? The atmosphere, the beers, the costumes, the darts, it's immense. It's a cathedral of sport. It really is. What do you love about being here? Well, I'll be honest, I was at the bar and a power ranger stood on my foot and, you know, we hugged and it was fine and the Pope came through and Jeremy Corbyn shook my hand. What can I say? And is there anything in particular that you would just absolutely love to witness tonight?
Nine-daughter. I mean, it goes without saying. Everybody wants to see a nine-daughter. If you see a nine-daughter, I've seen it on Telly. When you see it live in the flesh, oh, good God. It would be a life-changing experience. So, yeah. Maybe tonight's the night. So, the nine-daughter finish is basically perfection in darting terms. It's the fewest number of darts that you can get from 501 to 0, finishing on a double.
So every single dart needs to be perfect. The odds of pulling it off are tens of thousands to win. You can go watch that for years and not see what happens. It's the closest thing you get, I think, to a Biblical miracle in a sporting context.
And so when it does, it is this incredible moment, not just on the stage, but in the room. Come on, spun it by! Yes, double 12! That is the most amazing living arts you will ever see in your life!
It's these moments which really bond people wouldn't. Yeah, it is kind of like witnessing history but witnessing history with other people and having that energy, that communal energy that makes darts so special. Tell me like when did you fall in love with darts? I started watching it in the mid-90s when I was a kid. It was always on telly. A lot of people got into it through balls and things like that in the 80s.
It was an ITV game show where amateur players, often pub players, they'd compete at darts, but also answer general knowledge questions. Welcome to Bullseye. It's a game about the nation's most popular indoor sport. It's a game about general knowledge and about the skill of dark playing. The win prize is... That's it! Tonight's chart prize! And ultimately a speedboat. So it was...
It was always a speedboat living Northampton. What they're going to do with it anyway. The BBC would always show the BDO championships. And I just felt in love with the characters and as much as anything. Guys like Eric Bristo. I suppose that's why I'm writing number one in the world and he's not. John Lowe, Cliff Lazarenco. But I'm through, he's not. So remember, watch out for Cliff Lazarenco.
and you had sort of more idiosyncratic crowd-pleasing players like Jamie Harvey from Scotland who they called Brave Dark. And then obviously the champions of the era, Phil Taylor, Dennis Priestley, they were all recognizably normal guys. And yet, with such incredible talent, and as anyone knows, has ever tried to throw a dart at a dartboard from the required, it's such a difficult skill to learn.
Well, I've advised you to sit on the edge of your seat because I'm sitting on the edge of mine as the gladiators come out. So that was probably the height of the darts craves because in the 1980s, could have driven by the BBC and driven by characters like Bristow, like John Lowe, like Jockey Wilson, darts went through its, I guess, its first big boom. Game up.
So it's not ready to go? I think a lot of people back then, and probably still today actually, have a typical image of darts players in their head. Male, overweight, a pint in hand. And I really remember that Smith and Jones sketch of a darts match from ages ago. Double vodka. Another double vodka. One hundred milligrams. One hundred milligrams.
Do you think that was a fair representation? Yeah, there's obviously been a huge crossover between darts and alcohol. Andy Fordham, who actually won the BDO World Title in 2003, he would drink some 15, 20, sometimes 25 bottles before a game. He would later testify that there were lots and lots of his matches. Most of his career, actually, that he just didn't remember.
He didn't really remember winning the World title because he was just so off his face. Really? That's quite sad, actually, isn't it? It was, yeah. You still find that today. You do see players on TV, players on the stage who are quite clearly inebriated, who still, I think, need a drink to help them relax, to get them in the mood.
potentially wouldn't be able to perform to the same level without it. That almost kind of wilful excess. I think that is being curbed slightly, as Daz becomes a little bit more professional, and I guess a little bit more serious. And as well as not drinking quite so much these days, the other big difference is that the prize money is on another level, isn't it? The first ever BDO World Championship finally in 1978, the win-and-listen release of Wales gets
£3,000. If you go and lose your first game at this year's PDC World Championship, you get seven and a half grand for a night's work. Not bad.
The winner gets £500,000. Barry Hearn, who's the head of Matchroom, which owns the PTC, has said that he wants to get that to a million pretty soon. So you will have a game of darts being played for a million pounds. And I think that's the scale of the transformation that we're talking about. That is what is being driven by TV money, by crowds through the gates, by this incredible roadshow.
He's conducting all of Alexandra Palace to sing his theme song. I wouldn't believe he's about to take by one of the most important matches of his career.
He looks like he's having so much fun and I think that's something that is missing from so much professional sport. Like the stakes are so high everybody takes it so flipping seriously and I think that's what really appeals to me about the darts is that people are having a laugh they're having fun and Ricky Evans he just looked just like an ordinary guy you'd meet down the pub and that's because he is basically an ordinary guy and until pretty recently he works in a petrol station
It is really exciting and it kind of shouldn't be because I'll hear anybody here can actually see the dark dartsboards, you have to look at the telly. But considering that you've got in this hall, thousands of people who've been drinking since at least lunchtime and it's now half past nine at night.
The camera rather with the good vibes in this room were just off the scale. There's not one sourpuss in this room, maybe apart from the guy that's losing. Everybody's just having the absolute time of their lives.
And I wonder if one of the appeal of darts is that sense that anybody can have a go at it. You know, you don't need a pony, you don't need a boat, you don't need to be able to hire out a tennis court, right? You just need a darts board and a few darts and a wall, essentially. Is that something that also appealed to you, the idea that you could do it to?
Oh, absolutely. I mean, I grew up in a very small bedroom. We didn't have a garden that you could kick around a football in, but I had a dartboard and very occasionally hitting a 140 or 180, which obviously gave me a real thrill. Yeah. It is, I think, dart is possibly the simplest thing
in human history that has got this big. Even football, you need, you know, 10 people to play with and 11 people to play against. Darts, you literally just need a board. Sometimes you don't even need a board. The football world champion, Peter Wright, he grew up in very poor upbringing in Southeast London. He had a set of darts, but he didn't have a dart ball, so he threw against a tree. Really? Yeah, that's how we got good. And would you say it's one of the last truly working class sports?
Its roots are definitely working class. It always has been. But yeah, darts is, I think, very proud of its blue collar origins. As we all know, it came from the pubs and the working man's clubs. That's where the leagues started. It was where men went to test themselves.
And they're all here currently watching a window cleaner take on a caravan salesman from the Netherlands in a game of darts because this sport is the greatest in the world. And at the minute, it's the caravan salesman who's got a two-nil lead. One of my favourite phrases about darts is that it's a contact sport. It's not just about hitting the board and hitting the number. You're not just playing your own game. If you throw the right darts at the right time,
you can make the other person miss. And that's that psychological element. That's one of the most fascinating things I find. It is almost impervious to analysis or reason. It is a sport of pure vibes I find at times. That's another of the reasons I love it so much. The winner is... Luke Lilla.
And how important have the two Luke's been to the game? That's Luke Humphries who's the current world champion and maybe the only current dark player that a lot of people in the UK have heard of Luke Littler who is the 16 year old prodigy who ultimately lost in last year's final.
Yeah, I mean, the little effect has been absolutely insane. It's just been wild. I know the amount of academies that have been brought up in different locations, how big the sport's got, tickets selling out of Valley Palauvin. I was, and the Premier League, they sold out quick as well. The amount of attention that followed him on his route to last year's final. I don't think anyone could have predicted that, and I don't think anyone in darts really saw it coming.
I mean, the new is good, but we don't know who's going to be that good. But of course, every great sport runs on great rivalries and the fact that he lost in that final to Luke Comfrey's, the world number one, the outstanding player of the world.
I think that creates a great narrative. He hasn't dethroned Humphries' world number one Humphries reckon he's going to do it inevitably at some point but for the moment you have this this almost this duopoly at the top the young kid who's who's trying to dethron the world number one and those those rivalries are what sustain a sport
Right, and what about women? Because there are a few women playing in this tournament, Ali Palliant there, and also the first ever trans woman. How new is that? Yeah, people often assume that it's a men's world championship because most of the players are men, but it's actually an open tournament. Anyone can enter, anyone can qualify. And we've even had women beating men at this tournament. We had Fallon Sherrick, who reached the third round in 2019.
One of the best players in the world made all females is Bo Greaves, who's the current WDF Women's World Champion. So there is a thriving women's game. And of course, at a recreational level, men and women have played at the same level in pub teams, in pub tournaments for decades.
It's the second game of the night and after getting a bite to eat we head back to the arena to see the Latvian Matars Rausner versus the Dutchman Christian the lipstick kissed.
Kissed, lipsticked, get it! 75! Did you do a nine-star tour? Have you got to start off in a hundred and eighty? Every, every dance is going to be a trouble. Oh. I don't know, less than pocket. Here we go. What's going on? The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The 90s! The
Christian Kissed, can he deliver? I can't believe it, I cannot believe. My first time as adults, I have just seen a nine-daughter. It's unbelievable! It's like seeing a unicorn. There's people who've been dancing their whole life who've never seen a nine-daughter in the flesh, and I just have. Unbelievable!
Christian kissed has just won 60 grand and if that wasn't bonkers enough to celebrate the nine darts at the camera starts panning the crowd for one lucky fact.
He just won $60,000. So the camera was panning the room and he zoomed in on one guy. And there's a U, yes, U. He's just won $60.
After the drama of the Nine Darter, it's time for my first ever Darts press conference.
Hi Christian, tonight was my first ever darts tournament and all darts fans told me ahead of tonight that their biggest dream is to witness a nine-daughter and I saw it on my first ever tournament thanks to you.
You're welcome. How did it say thank you? And how did it feel when you're on your ninth dart, the final one? What's that feeling, whether you're going to do it? Oh, yeah. On that moment, it was great. I'm a little bit disappointed. I lost first game. Yeah, I'm sure it was disappointing. But you bought a lot of happiness to people to see this incredible feat. So thank you. Yeah. So, Jonathan, I must admit that when we spoke earlier, before I'd actually been to the darts,
I was still slightly struggling to grasp the mass appeal of darts, but now I get it. I completely get it having been there. It is quite incredible, isn't it? Yeah, I mean, it's a hard thing to put into words or rationalise, and you do just kind of have to go, basically. You have to let the darts into you, and it sounds like you properly
opened your heart and your mind and your liver. And let the darts flow into you. Yeah. And when you were talking me through the nine data, which I'd never heard of before, I must admit, you described it as the closest thing to a biblical miracle in a sporting context.
And I saw one. Can you believe it, my first time at the darts? I hope you want too jealous that I saw it in the flesh. No, I mean, that's, I mean, it's quite a bit lucky for one thing because, you know, these things are incredibly rare. You get one or two a year if you're lucky and literally your first session. That is quite something. Congratulations. Thank you very much.
Coming up, could the busiest sport be heading to the driest, soundy desert?
Jonathan, what is next for darts? What of the professional darts corporation the PDC got planned? It's just a constant process of expansion. It's going to more countries than ever before. There are more tournaments to squeeze into the calendar. There are more players coming through. There are more crowds coming through the door. Dart isn't just played in this country anymore. It's played all over mainland Europe. They played in the Far East. They sell out Madison Square Garden in New York. They sell out venues across Australia.
They've taken it to Bahrain, Saudi Arabia wants to be involved. It is genuinely a global sportner. That surprises me. Saudi Arabia wanting to have the darts, which I associate with being so kind of beer soaked. Yeah, that's it. Saudi Arabia wants to be approached the PDC and said, would you be interested in taking a tournament here? And they said, will you allow alcohol? And they said, no, well, no, then.
OK, so that deals not not been done. It's not been done. But I think they will, especially with the meant for walk up going to Saudi in 2034, some kind of compromise, some kind of accommodation will be found because the, and certainly a lot of the top players are pushing the PDC to explore the Saudi angle quite a bit more because the amount of money on the table is basically too big to ignore for too long.
And do you have a theory about why darts is becoming so popular right now? Is there something about the culture right now, the point in society that we're living in that means darts is just the sport that hits the spot, or the balls I should say? Yeah, well, I mean, we could discuss this for hours. I think in short, there is a really desperate need in culture right now for some kind of escapism, not to sort of, not to want to drag down the tone, but
Life is pretty tough at the moment. The world is pretty crap, but darts provide that pure escapism. And also because its characters and its stars and its heroes are so recognizably relatable, they're so clearly from the same towns and communities that we grew up in, that they're so recognizably real people.
Definitely. And I am 100% a darts convert. And thank you very much, Johnnie, for holding my hand at the start of this and tolerating my basic questions and allowing me into the darts van hall. So thank you very much. You're very welcome. That was Johnathan Liu. You can read all of his magisterial writing on the darts at TheGuardian.com.
If you enjoyed this episode, please do leave us a review. We really enjoy reading what you think of the show and it also helps other people to find us. Today's episode was produced by Tom Glasser and presented by me, Helen Pitt. Sound Design was by Joel Cox and the executive producer was Elizabeth Cassin. We'll be back on Monday. This is The Guardian.
