Nine-dart finish

A nine-dart finish is a perfect leg in the sport of darts, using only nine darts, the fewest possible, to check out from 501. It is notoriously difficult to achieve, even by the game's top professionals. It is considered to be the highest single-game achievement in the sport, similar to a maximum 147 break in snooker or a 300-point game in bowling.

A single game (known as a leg) of darts requires a player to score 501 points, ending with either the bullseye or a double. Each shot consists of exactly three darts and 60 is the maximum that can be scored with any one dart. Thus 180 is the maximum score of a shot, and nine throws are the minimum necessary to win.

Although many other combinations are possible, the traditional nine-dart finish requires a score of 60 (treble 20) with each of the first six throws, that is, with the first two shots of three. This leaves 141 to score on the final shot (of three darts), known as the outshot.

This outshot is traditionally performed in one of three ways:

Another way is to score 167 with each set of three darts, scoring a perfect 501 total, in the following way:

This eliminates the chance of any dart being deflected by an already thrown dart into the wrong scoring area by throwing each dart at a different location on the board. It is only usually seen in exhibition matches, as in tournaments, players are inclined to aim for the triple 20, only switching to the triple 19 for a cover shot.

Arguably the most difficult nine dart finish would be 180 (3xT20), 171 (3xT19), and 150 (3xBULL) – owing to the difficulty of getting all three darts in the bullseye: it is the smallest double on the board.

A nine dart finish is also attainable in games which require a double to commence scoring. In such games, throwing for double 20 first can lead to a maximum score of 160 with the first throw, leaving the thrower commonly requiring 180 then 161 (T20,T17,BULL) in their remaining six darts, though other outcomes are possible. It is worth noting that in these games, only throwing for double 20, double 17, or bullseye to start the leg can result in a nine dart finish.

The total number of different ways of achieving 501 with 9 darts is 3,944, of which 2,296 finish with the BULL, 672 end on D20, 792 on D18, 56 end with D17, 120 finish on D15, and 8 end with D12.

The first televised nine dart finish was achieved at the MFI World Matchplay on 13 October 1984 by John Lowe, who used the third method (with the T17 first, then T18, D18) above as his outshot after scoring two maximum 180s. For this he received a prize of £102,000, and he went on to win the whole event. This nine dart finish was not broadcast live, nor was Paul Lim's nine dart finish at the 1990 Embassy World Championship. The first ever live broadcast nine dart finish was performed by Shaun Greatbatch against Steve Coote in the Final of the Dutch Open on 3 February 2002, while Phil Taylor achieved the first live nine-darter broadcast on British television during the 2002 World Matchplay.

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Wikipedia