What Is a 9 Darter? (And How to Win £501 Trying)

A nine darter is the perfect leg of darts: 501 checked out in nine throws, the minimum possible. It is darts' hole in one, its 147 break, its perfect game. Most people who play their whole lives never throw one. That is exactly why a room goes berserk when someone gets close.

How a 9 darter actually works

You start a leg on 501 and have to finish on a double. Nine darts means averaging 167 per visit with no wasted throw. The most famous route is 180, 180, 141: two maximums, then treble 20, treble 19, double 12. There are other routes, but every single one needs nine perfect darts in a row. One dart a millimetre out and it is gone.

The most famous nine darters ever

• Paul Lim, 1990: the first televised nine darter at the World Championship. The £52,000 bonus was more than the winner's cheque.
• Phil Taylor, 2010: two nine darters in the same match, in the Premier League final. Still barely believable.
• Adrian Lewis, 2011: the first ever nine darter in a World Championship final. The same Adrian Lewis who is headlining our Christmas party, incidentally.
• Michael Smith, 2023: the nine darter in the World final against Michael van Gerwen, in a leg where van Gerwen missed his own attempt seconds earlier. Widely called the greatest leg of darts ever played.

The £501 nine dart challenge

At every Throwdown live darts night in Dudley, the nine dart challenge is open to everyone in the room. Throw your best nine darts, top the leaderboard on the night, and you earn a shot at beating a professional darts player on stage with the cash pot on the line.

Here is the twist: every time nobody wins it, the pot grows. It started at £100, survived a brave challenge in August, rolled over again when young Toby's 271 fell just short at the Gian van Veen night - and then Halloween gave us the best leaderboard score yet: a young thrower called Lucas, 'Cobra' to the room, hit a monstrous 361, only for Daryl Gurney himself to show his class on stage. Four events, no winner, and the pot now stands at £501 for the Throwdown Christmas Party with Adrian Lewis on Sunday 6 December. Why £501? Because in darts, of course it had to be. Think of it as our community-priced answer to beating Luke Littler for half a million.

Could you actually do it?

Honestly, probably not the full nine darter. But that is not the point. The challenge is about your best nine darts, not perfection, and someone has to win the pot eventually. It might as well be you, in front of a few hundred people, in Dudley, with Jackpot himself watching.

Throw for the £501 at the Christmas Party