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Paul Nicholson looks back at some iconically cruel moments in darts

Missed match darts: Paul Nicholson looks back at a selection of iconic - yet costly - moments in darting history

By Paul Nicholson

Darts

Wed December 11, 2024 · 2w ago

Paul Nicholson looks back at five infamously costly moments in the first of a two-part feature about the pain of missing match darts.

All darts players in history have suffered the pain of defeat after missing match darts and some will even say a width of a wire prevented their careers taking a completely different path.

One of those is former major winner Paul Nicholson, but despite admitting the 2012 World Cup final left deep scars on his darting soul until this very day, the Asset has opened up about that experience in his latest column which looks back at other iconic 'what if' moments.

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Indeed, for a sport of such fine margins, it's incredible to think how big the knock-on effects can be when a dart falls a fraction outside or inside of its intended target.

In this week's edition, the leading commentator and pundit picks out the first five of his eventual 10 selections and discusses what would have gone through the players minds, how well - or badly - they responded and ponders what might have been in their respective careers.

I think it's human nature for any darts player to dwell more on the missed match darts than the times you benefit from your opponent gifting you a victory by doing the same.

I've missed many match darts - or multiple match darts - and I can remember those very vividly but struggle to recall the times when I had good fortune.

Although this isn't one of my listed examples below, but there was a time when I missed 10 match darts against Dennis Ovens at the UK Open across four different legs and it really affected me. I should have reached the quarter-finals and I truly believe I could have won the title that instead went to Robert Thornton.

But these agonising moments are part and parcel of sports, so the key is knowing how to respond to them rather than letting them adversely define you in the future.

Peter Wright 10-11 Michael van Gerwen, Premier League Final 2017

Everything we do in darts is intensified because it’s so fast-paced. I know people who aren’t sport fans but like darts because it is that intense. It’s like Twenty20 cricket mixed with an energy drink.

This has to be ‘the’ place to start because when you talk to many fans about missed match darts in the modern era, this is the one that everyone thinks about.

In that match, Peter Wright was utilising all his past experiences against Michael van Gerwen and it looked as if he’d finally worked out a way to beat his nemesis.

As world class darts players, all we ever crave is to get into a position to win a match with three darts in hand. It doesn’t matter if you’re 11-0 in front or 10-10.

If you don’t get it done from there, then you only have yourself to blame.

At 10-9 ahead in one of the biggest matches of his life, Peter had got himself into this exact position after just nine darts of the 20th leg but not only did he miss all three, he spurned another three clear attempts on his next visit!

Wright v Van Gerwen - Premier League Final 2017

That must have been doubly heart-breaking and it clearly had an effect on him in the deciding leg, which MVG romped away with to win the title.

Peter had won his first TV major a few months earlier at the UK Open but he was still under pressure to prove himself because he felt some had discredited that success in Minehead because MVG wasn’t there.

It could have feasibly crept into his mind during the closing stages as he was poised to silence the critics.

Had he hit any of those six missed match darts, you just wonder what he could have gone on to achieve that season – let alone the following two years before he eventually beat van Gerwen in a major final at the World Championship back in January.

There must have been a dent in his confidence after that Premier League final but the following weekend he won a Players Championship title and also went on claim a televised World Series title against Phil Taylor in Germany.

He lost the World Matchplay final against Taylor in the summer and was beaten again by MVG in the Grand Slam of Darts final – so he may have just needed that extra belief on those big occasions, which would have come from Premier League glory.

However, Peter has gone on to prove how mentally strong he really is to now take these crushing setbacks on the chin, get back off the canvas and keep improving, but ultimately come out the other side as a world champion.

Michael van Gerwen 2-3 Phil Taylor: 2008 World Championship

What would eventually become an iconic rivalry several years later first entered the limelight way back in December 2007 when they met in the opening round at Ally Pally.

Around this time, we are expecting this teenage sensation, who had already won the BDO World Masters as a 17-year-old, to start contending for PDC titles sooner rather than later but for some reason it wasn’t happening.

Even so, the draw still got everybody excited and MVG moved into a 2-1 set lead before earning himself a match dart at double 12 after he’d hit single three and treble 18 to rescue the chance for an 81 checkout. He stepped back, gathered himself, but missed narrowly on the inside.

If he’d eliminated Taylor in the first round of what turned out to be a very strange World Championship, would he have exploded onto the scene and dominated the game much earlier than he did?

Phil Taylor V Michael Van Gerwen 2008 PDC World Darts Championship 1st Round

Who’s to say he wouldn’t have won it? Everyone had the flu, there were no end of shocks and Kirk Shepherd reached the final from MVG’s top half of the draw against John Part.

That was a huge dart because very few players had been getting close to Taylor around that time and although he eventually lost to Wayne Mardle, this was still in the midst of his dominance.

Instead it took MVG three more difficult years, where he was learning about the downside of darts, before he won his first PDC title in Taunton and it wasn’t until 2012 when he landed his first major at the World Grand Prix – after which the floodgates began to open.

That defeat to Taylor was also the first of a 15-game losing streak against the Power, which finally ended at the Grand Slam of Darts in 2012.

The expectations were enormous from 2007 to 2011 and he didn’t really cope with it, so maybe he needed to fly under the radar before he could plot a path to soar above the rest.

In that respect, maybe it was a blessing that he missed that match dart against Taylor. We’ll never know but it’s fascinating to debate the possibilities.

England v Australia, World Cup final, 2012

This isn’t just missed match darts from one player…it’s missed match darts from three of the four of us!

I defy anyone who thinks we’ll get a more dramatic World Cup final than this one and I can honestly say I’ve never felt pressure of that intensity in my entire life – before or since.

So, this incredible match goes right down to a sudden death leg before I miss two title darts, Phil Taylor misses two and then Simon Whitlock also misses two. Adrian Lewis, who’d only managed to leave Taylor 56 from 88 in his previous visit, then managed to pin double five at the first attempt to break our hearts.

Even now I find it difficult to put it into words. I watched it back again recently for the first time in years and saw myself walking around at the back of the stage in a figure of eight pattern not knowing what to do with myself. I know it’s only sport, but how often do you get the chance to win a World Cup?

Now let’s look at what happened to all four players after this. Taylor and Lewis obviously went on and won plenty more titles and majors between them, Whitlock responded very well by winning the European Championship that same year, but I never won another title in the PDC.

I was so mentally scarred it took me a long time to recover from that. I’ve always been known for having a thin skin but that tournament did leave a deep scar even to this day.

World Cup of Darts 2012 Final - Sudden death - England v Australia

I’ve always felt as though my missed darts in the World Cup final are remembered more than anyone else’s due to my reaction to it afterwards, and that also hurts.

I remember having three match darts at double 12 in the 2013 European Darts Trophy final against Wes Newton and my mind triggered back to the World Cup final. I subsequently missed my attempts at double 12 and double 6 as well.

We often say in sport that players have confidence streaks because their most recent memory are their winning putts, doubles, or titles. But some, like me, look back too often at the negative moments rather than all the good stuff that happened before it.

If I’d won the World Cup, I’m convinced I would have gone on to win more titles in the PDC but instead I let the failure leave a big indelible mark on my life and career.

I think it was obvious how much more Simon and I wanted to win that final more for Australia, but Adrian Lewis has often spoken about his pride – and you can see the emotional rollarcoaster he was on during the sudden-death leg!

When he’s interviewed and referenced as a former World champion, he’ll often remind the people of the World Cups he won with Phil Taylor.

The one positive I can take is that I played a part in a final which really put the World Cup on the darting map as a tournament. It was only the second time it had been staged and therefore didn’t have the long history which gives many established events their gravitas.

Keith Deller 6-4 Eric Bristow, 1983 BDO World Championship final

This isn’t really a missed match dart but I think the ripple effect from this iconic moment in the 1983 World Championship final would have been felt to this day.

Everyone knows the story of how this incredible match unfolded, but I often think about it as a fork in the road moment for Keith Deller.

The bottom of the fork is Keith hitting his title-winning 138 checkout and living the life and career he has.

But what if Eric Bristow had gone for the bullseye and hit it before Keith got that chance – or if he’d failed to make his checkout and Eric’s gamble subsequently paid off to force a deciding set?

Eric would have been hot favourite to win that set and had he done so, Keith’s life would have been incredibly different. But for better or worse? That’s the biggest question.

Eric Bristow V Keith Deller 1983 World championship Darts final

Considering he never went on to win another world title after this career-defining success, who’s to say he wouldn’t have used the disappointment in this parallel world to ignite his hunger to win more titles?

Michael van Gerwen lost his first World Championship final at such a young age and has gone on to win three so far.

Success, fame and the status of being a poster boy for darts could have come too early for Keith especially when you think he was just a qualifier heading into that tournament and ends up beating one of the greatest players of all time.

His foot may have come off the gas when it came to urgency without even knowing it. If you’re a world champion you don’t really have much to prove. Lose it and you put your foot to the floor to get another chance at glory.

Keith’s results after his world title weren’t hell raising and with his talent you do have to ask why.

That said, it must have been a motivation by the late 1980s and 1990s to try and become known for more than 1983 and his 138 checkout. It’s like the second album syndrome in music and trying to achieve something extra special again.

Phil Taylor 6-5 Mike Gregory, 1992 BDO World Championship final

Mike Gregory was regarded by many as the best player in the world heading into this Lakeside final, which remains my favourite ever match in history.

But despite watching it many times, I’d only recently learned that he described his six missed match darts as the Bermuda Triangle. Two at tops, two at 10s and two at 8s.

It’s such a great analogy from Mike to describe arguably the most heart-breaking moments that’s ever happened in the game.

You could see in his eyes that he was hoping to hit one of his six match darts rather than expecting to do it and it was just so painfully dramatic to watch.

Phil Taylor stole his second world title and went on to achieve greatness while I’m sure Mike has endured many sleepless nights to this very day thinking about what could have been for him.

1992 World Final Mike Gregory V Phil Taylor

On a certain level I know how he feels, but this has got to be even worse. This was about becoming champion of the world pre-split, when there were no questions about which version was superior.

Mike also became known as the player who went to the PDC for a very short time only to come back to the BDO and he lost a lot of friends because of it – but I don’t think he’d have switched back had he won that world title.