The World Darts Championship is the most prestigious darts tournament in the world and they are currently in the third round for this year’s edition. For those familiar with the darts, the most rare achievement is a perfect leg; a nine-dart finish where the player finishes their 501 point leg in nine darts.

In the history of darts, 58 televised nine-dart finishes occurred before today and at the World Darts Championship, James Wade hit the 59th. It is Wade’s third career perfect leg and it’s just the 10th nine-darter at the World Darts Championship.

This nine-darter was a bit different than previous ones. For one thing, there’s no crowd. Because of COVID-19, fans were not allowed to attend the Alexandra Palace and thus we are unable to see a bunch of drunk people in Halloween costumes singing soccer chants at a couple darts players this year. If there were fans for this nine-darter, the roof would’ve exploded.

That might explain why Wade seemed somewhat subdued after his nine-darter. Or maybe it was because despite the nine-darter, Wade lost his third round match to Stephen Bunting. Regardless, seeing perfection happen in any sport is pretty magical, even if it’s in a sport where many in the United States might not exactly understand the scoring.

About Phillip Bupp

Producer/editor of the Awful Announcing Podcast and Short and to the Point. News editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. Highlight consultant for Major League Soccer as well as a freelance writer for hire. Opinions are my own but feel free to agree with them.

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