Darts. The most fundamentally boring thing that has inexplicably been turned into a gripping spectator sport.
Those of you lucky or bored enough to have caught a darts broadcast on Fox Sports on a rainy, nondescript night will no doubt already be aware of how much of a spectacle it is. Two pudgy Scouse blokes named Neil going toe-to-toe in front of a crowd of far-beyond-pissed Brits doing their best to shake the building to the ground while a tiny man who is either 45 or 93 announces the ever-evolving scores through vocal cords made exclusively of gravel.
It’s mystifying. It’s mind-boggling. And it absolutely rules.
[jwplayer ufxzSg8Y]
Crowds at these events are preternaturally conditioned to lose their God-given minds over the most routine of darts occurrences, so when something actually notable happens the whole thing becomes a borderline riot.
Case in point, a Scottish bloke by the name of Gary Anderson.
Anderson, in a Professional Darts Corporation matchup conducted overnight in Blackpool, pulled off a feat not seen on the pro-darts circuit since 2014: A 9-dart finish.
That is, achieving the score of 501 via two consecutive 180s (three triple 20s), and a final hand of triple 20, triple 19, and double 12.
No mean feat by any stretch of the imagination.
But the crowd at the Winter Gardens Ballroom reacted like Stone Cold Steve Austin just walked into the building and dropped a reanimated Hitler with a Stone Cold Stunner.
Observe.
NINE DARTER FROM GARY ANDERSON | Anderson reels in the biggest fish of all to send the Winter Gardens crowd into a frenzy!!#BVDarts #LoveTheDarts pic.twitter.com/n0yhmcnksc
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) July 26, 2018
Fuck me sideways that is some crowd reaction.
The in-crowd footage is even better.
OH I DID!!! KNEW HE WAS GOING TO HIT IT! WENT MENTAL pic.twitter.com/4k2QPMNMia
— David Scott (@1DavidScott1) July 26, 2018
Absolute scenes, I tell you.
Anderson, for the record, went on to win his matchup against Englishman Joe Cullen by a tight margin of 19 legs to 17.
The crowd, but. Full 180.
