Why are nine-darters on the rise? — and more

The numbers of nine-darters taking place in the world of professional darts seems to be on the rise, with 2026 on track so far to become a record year for perfect legs.

The Players Championship has already seen six in the first six events. and there has been one within the opening four weeks of the Premier League Darts campaign.

Televised nine-darters are also becoming more frequent, but this is largely due to the increasing number of competitions being broadcast in recent years.

"It's a special feeling," two-time world champion Dennis Priestley told BBC Sport.

"It's like kids starting up today you know getting their first 180, it is such a milestone for them and then if they're just good enough to go on and play on TV and they do a nine darter.

"It's the perfect darts."

But are nine-darters really on the up? What are the potential reasons for it if so, and can they actually be a curse in disguise?

The numbers behind the rise of nine-darters

There have only been two full months of the 2026 darts season, but there are already early signs that nine-darters are on the up.

In the Players Championship, there have been six perfect legs from as many meetings so far this term, compared to five at this stage 12 months ago.

Last year's Players Championship had a record 33 perfect legs across the campaign and all of the previous five full campaigns had at least 20 perfect legs.

Data from Ochepedia shows that on average, a nine-darter has taken place once every 1,167 legs in this year's Players Championship, making it fractionally the most common season for them of all-time, edging ahead of 1,195 in 2021 and 1,200 from last year.

The Premier League did not have any in its opening four weeks of the 2025 season, but the 2026 season saw Josh Rock find the first in week four in Belfast.

In the 2025 season, there were a record five Premier League nine-darters, making it the first campaign to consist of more than two.

However, the 2026 World Darts Championship did not contain any in over 2,200 legs, in what was the most fixtures played at a single World Championship.

More tournaments and thinner wires

Some players go without landing many, if any, nine-darters in their professional careers.

Others make a habit of it, with 597 being hit that have been officially recognised by the Professional Darts Corporation since their formation in 1992.

Dutch darting great and current world number four Michael van Gerwen leads the way at present with 30, eight more than the next highest and 16-time world champion Phil Taylor.

Prior to 2018, there had never been 30 or more nine-darters in a single year. But the last couple of years have seen their frequency significantly increase, with 58 in 2024, 55 in 2025 and 19 already in the first two months of 2026.

"The standard is better and they're playing competitively nearly every weekend," explained Priestley. "That's a big help."

"When I won the [World Championship] in 1991 in January, I didn't play another competitive game until April. So there's a big difference.

"You're attuned and you're ready mentally and physically when you're playing week in, week out at a tough level."

As well as an increased rate of tournaments and higher standard across the sport of darts, Priestley says that a slimmer set of wires around the trebles bed allows players to aim for a larger target, with eight trebles often needed as part of a nine-darter.

"They can see more of the treble now because the wires are so thin. That's a big help," the 1992 and 1994 world champion explained.

"The trebles are no bigger than when I was playing, but you can just see more because the wiring is so thin."

A blessing or a curse?

Among the players to hit a perfect leg in recent history is women's world number one Beau Greaves, doing so during a Players Championship event to become to first female player to hit a perfect leg, during a victory over Mensur Suljovic.

Fifteen years ago, Priestley hit his only PDC-recognised perfect leg against the same player, but went on to lose the match.

It is a pattern that is common in players hitting perfect legs.

Rock's perfect leg in Belfast a week ago against Gian van Veen came during a defeat, with Van Veen himself doing the same during a loss to Luke Littler in the final of last month's Poland Darts Open.

The last two nine-darters in the World Championship, hit by Christian Kist and Damon Heta during the 2025 edition, both came during losing performances.

"It's a mental barrier, they are still overjoyed about it in the nine-darter and the standard just seems to drop that little touch," Priestley adds.

"The consummate professional probably more than 50% lose rather than win after hitting a nine-darter."

Given the celebration and rarity there is for nine-darters, many tournaments award separate prizes for players who can achieve perfection.

Kist and Heta were both awarded £60,000 each for their World Championship perfect legs, prize money that was significantly higher than what both earned for their progression in the competition.

Rock's perfect leg in Premier League Darts saw him win a custom-made set of gold darts worth £30,000, triple the £10,000 prize won by Stephen Bunting for winning last week's final.

But does the extra incentive mean players are targeting perfect legs over tournament wins?

"I wouldn't have thought so," said Priestley.

"The first thing is getting the match won. It didn't help me [against Suljovic in 2011].

"John Lowe won £102,000 in 1983, so that was a big incentive. Because there are more and more being hit, obviously they are not prepared to offer that sort of money now."

This article is the latest from BBC Sport's Ask Me Anything team.

More questions answered...

• Who is playing in Premier League Darts 2026 and what is the schedule?
• How do players get picked for Premier League Darts?
• Do they change the dartboards at the World Championship?
• What is dartitis and what causes it?

With each passing iteration, the World Baseball Classic gets bigger and bigger – in crowd size, attendance, cultural currency and participants.

Yet the world within it keeps shrinking.

As the sixth WBC gets underway this month, the pool play portion of the event will bear faint resemblance to the earliest iterations of the event, an apparent marker of its growth and the game’s elevated level of play worldwide:

Closer games. Fewer run-rule victories and shutouts. And the more than occasional upset of a perceived global power.

“Everyone can see that there’s so much talent all over the world,” San Diego Padres and Dominican Republic third baseman Manny Machado tells USA TODAY Sports. “It’s not just here, but all over the world. It means a lot to be the last team standing. I hope it’s us.

“It’s just such a cool event. You’re playing for not just your country, not for the fans, but the people in their countries and across the world. I get goosebumps just talking about it because it’s such a special event."

The inaugural WBC was a little lighter on goosebumps. Pool play games were contested not in big league stadiums but rather spring training sites, Scottsdale and Lake Buena Vista among the locales to determine quarterfinalists.

 And the games were, well, often over before they started.

In 2006, the nine countries and territories that supply the most major league talent – Japan, South Korea, USA, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Cuba and Canada – went a combined 15-0 against less-renowned baseball countries in pool play, with four shutouts and three run-rule wins.

Average score: 9-3, kicked off by Team USA’s 17-0 shellacking of South Africa behind Ken Griffey Jr.’s 4-for-4, two-homer performance.

Yet the gap has been shrinking in almost every iteration of the event since.

Have glove, will travel

In 2009, the less-heralded countries managed three victories in 13 games, including Australia turning the tables and run-ruling Mexico. The Netherlands, powered by a handful of major leaguers hailing from Curacao, scored the first big tourney upset, toppling the mighty Dominican Republic and bouncing them from the tournament.

And suddenly, the average margin of victory shrank from 9-3 to 7-3.

The trend continued through 2013 – when the average score between haves and have-nots shrank to 6-4 - and 2017, when the baseball-poorer countries endured just one shutout. Colombia knocked off Canada and took Team USA to 10 innings, while Australia fell in 10 innings to Venezuela.

China, which lost its first six WBC games against global powers from 2006 to 2013 by a combined score of 64-5, was suddenly playing baseball games in 2017, losing 6-0 to Cuba and 7-1 to China.

Meanwhile, players are seeing the upside of playing in a global event by representing homelands with which they have strong or even faint connections. Italy this year will feature Kansas City Royals sluggers Vinnie Pasquantino and Jac Caglianone as it aims to repeat – or exceed - its quarterfinal showing from 2023.

Israel, with major league old heads like Sam Fuld, Jason Marquis, Ike Davis and Ty Kelly alongside its “Mensch On The Bench,” made a startling 2017 run to the quarterfinals.

And stars spurned by their country of birth are nonetheless still pining to play. Eight-time All-Star Nolan Arenado, who starred for Team USA in 2017 and 2023, didn’t hear his phone ring this time as a star-studded group of American-born commitments poured in.

Instead, Puerto Rico manager Yadier Molina, his old St. Louis Cardinals teammate, called him up, asking to galvanize a squad beset by injury and insurance woes. Arenado, whose mother Millie is of Puerto Rican and Cuban descent, was all in.

“I didn’t expect (Team USA) to call coming off last year,” says Arenado, who produced a career-low .666 OPS for St. Louis before an off-season trade to Arizona. “I wasn’t going to play this year, but Yadi called me and my mom wanted me to do it.

“I love the tournament. The talent is sick. It just gets better and better.’’

Cole Palmer has revealed he’s feeling the best he’s felt in “four of five months” following Chelsea’s win against Aston Villa.

The Blues ran out emphatic 4-1 winners at Villa Park, to move above Liverpool and back into fifth place as the race for Champions League football continues.

Chelsea responded brilliantly to going a goal down in the opening minutes with Joao Pedro scoring a hat-trick, and Palmer also getting on the scoresheet.

Cole Palmer shares fitness update

Palmer has struggled with a groin injury this season, which caused him to miss virtually the entire first half of the campaign.

Since returning in December he’s had some good moments, but things haven’t appeared quite right, and he didn’t have a good performance against Arsenal.

Palmer was back on the scoresheet against Villa. (Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images)

However, speaking before the big win, Palmer provided a fitness update, and revealed this is the best he’s felt in months.

“I still feel a bit away from being [the best Cole Palmer],” he said as quoted on X.com.

“I’ve said to the physios this week that this is the best I have felt in four or five months.

“I can do everything on the pitch now so it is just about finding my rhythm.”

Palmer has previously stated he’s yet to play a game fully fit this season, but put in an encouraging performance at Villa Park.

The England international now has five goals and an assist in his last league five games, and Chelsea will be hoping that form continues.

Joao Pedro delivers once again

Whilst Palmer is continuing to work on getting back to his best, Pedro has continued to go from strength to strength under Liam Rosenior.

The 24-year-old has now scored 14 league goals this season, and has eight in his last eight Premier League matches.

More Stories / Latest News

“I’ve said to the physios” – Cole Palmer shares major fitness update

5th Mar 2026, 10:30am

Joao Pedro stole the show, but Rosenior praises Chelsea star who did “everything right” vs Aston Villa

5th Mar 2026, 09:52am

“The right manager” – Steve McManaman claims Chelsea ace is much better suited to Rosenior than Maresca

5th Mar 2026, 08:30am

Pedro will likely be on the bench against Wrexham in the FA Cup on Saturday, but the Blues will need him at his brilliant best against PSG next week.

Check out the latest edition of Simon Phillips’ SPTC podcast here:

SARASOTA, Fla. — Trevor Rogers initially assumed something was wrong. He certainly wasn’t aware what was happening in real time.

A pair of fielding errors forced the Baltimore Orioles southpaw to toss extra pitches and linger underneath the sun on Tuesday afternoon. Suddenly, his teammates converged near the mound. It wasn’t a meeting called by rookie catcher Samuel Basallo, either.

Rather, it was veteran first baseman Pete Alonso, the franchise’s prized $155 million offseason acquisition, who deemed the mound visit necessary in a seemingly meaningless exhibition game against Team Netherlands.

“I thought he saw something that I was tipping pitches,” Rogers said of Alonso calling his own mound visit in the second inning.

Not quite.

“It wasn’t about [Rogers] or anybody,” Alonso said. “It was like, ‘Hey, we just need to clean it up.’ If we want to go far in the playoffs, it’s all about doing the little things right even now, getting into good habits.”

What a refreshing sense of accountability from the eighth-year slugger.

Seriously.

Position players, especially first basemen, at the pro level rarely call their own in-game meetings. That responsibility almost always belongs to the catcher or on occasional instances, the shortstop, for defensive positioning. Don’t count Alonso part of that group.

Fans likely won’t remember the early March box score from Baltimore’s 8-5 exhibition loss to the Netherlands (actually a majority of Birdland will have little-to-no recollection since the game wasn’t broadcast locally back home), but if the Orioles goes on to make a meaningful run later in the year when the games count, moments like Alonso’s on-field accountability scene will be etched in the root of the club’s emerging culture under first-year manager Craig Albernaz.

Too often throughout the Orioles’ disappointing 2025 campaign (75-87) in which they missed the postseason with a last-place finish in the AL East, the Orioles lacked the leadership required to sustain the expected blows from a 162-game gauntlet.

Insert the Polar Bear.

“If you have that habit of playing good baseball, then it becomes second nature,” Alonso said. “But now in camp, we need to lock in on it and play clean baseball. That’s just a good habit. That’s just winning culture. If we play clean baseball, good things will happen.”

Since his early arrival to spring training ahead of most teammates, Alonso has served as one of the loudest player voices across the team’s complex along the western Florida shore. From the outset, Alonso often has barked constructive and playful criticism toward his pitching teammates and hitters alike.

Many, including myself, wondered exactly how Alonso’s presence would fit not just in the middle of the lineup, but also inside a clubhouse with a talented but largely unproven bunch.

So far, it feels like a pretty nifty fit.

Especially lacking in the Orioles’ clubhouse is postseason experience; under president of baseball operations Mike Elias, the club owns an 0-5 postseason record. Alonso brings valuable experience following his record-setting seven seasons with the Mets. He appeared in 16 postseason games, including the Mets’ run to the NL Championship Series in 2024 that included postseason series wins over the Milwaukee Brewers and Philadelphia Phillies.

Now in Baltimore, Alonso seems determined to help deliver the Orioles’ first postseason win since October 2014.

That winning formula starts during the early humid days of spring training.

“Pete’s sort of like, ‘We aren’t playing with the energy that we need to play with,’” Rogers said. “Coming from a veteran like that on March 3, really hampering down that we need to play with energy, especially [on] days like this, it’s really tough to get the body going, get yourself ready and the adrenaline pumping.

“So coming from a leader like that — oh, man, he’s going to help us a lot, especially telling us we need to pick up the slack.”

Inside the batter’s box, Alonso hasn’t missed a beat after launching 264 career home runs in New York.

The right-handed power hitter blasted his “third” home run of the spring, though his latest example of his renowned pop won’t count toward official Grapefruit League statistics since Tuesday was an exhibition with Team Netherlands warming up for World Baseball Classic pool play.

Who cares if stats won’t count from Tuesday’s exhibition? Alonso’s power and leadership are equally palpable, and exactly what the rebounding Orioles need.

There might be times throughout the regular season when Alonso, like how he did on Tuesday, has to do it all on his own.

His home run in the first inning represented the club’s only hit until he cracked a single up the middle in his next at-bat. With Gunnar Henderson departed for Team USA and Jordan Westburg and Jackson Holliday still rehabbing from their respective injuries, Alonso was the only projected opening day infield starter in Tuesday’s lineup with third baseman Bryan Ramos, shortstop Jeremiah Jackson and second baseman Thairo Estrada.

Alonso, whose 18.9 barrel percentage (a batted ball with the perfect combination of exit velocity and launch angle) ranked fifth in MLB in 2025, reached base in his two plate appearances, with his sharp line drive up the middle recording a higher exit velocity (110 mph) than his 384-foot home run (102.7 mph) that landed beyond the right field fence at Ed Smith Stadium.

When the club’s front office inked him to a five-year deal, the Orioles had confidence in what they were receiving in Alonso the power hitter.

But with roughly three weeks until opening day, Alonso is quickly emerging as the Orioles’ clubhouse leader. There couldn’t be a more clear example than his latest dose of accountability and his pleading with teammates Tuesday.

“It’s a great group and these guys make it super easy to come to the field everyday and bring that energy,” Alonso said. “As you progress in your career, you start to become the older guy. For me, it’s just remembering lessons. Having that rapport with [teammates], where it’s like, you can hold each other accountable and not get your feelings hurt, and that’s super productive and great.

“It doesn’t matter how you deliver it, as long as the message is delivered and [teammates] are receptive and pulling in the same direction … it’s fantastic.”

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