"The MOST INCREDIBLE Thing I've EVER SEEN!" 🎯 Luke Littler RECORD-140 Average REACTION | GGPoker
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Hello, I'm Ian Danter and welcome to Aces and Arrows, our talk sport darts podcast in partnership with GG Poker, the world's biggest online poker room. Players must be 18 plus. GambleAware.org, please play responsibly. This is episode two. We'll be bringing you episodes all the way through on the PDC World Darts Championship and a little bit of extra fun along the way, completing the

Our talk sport dance lineup today are Mark Wilson, Chris Mason and Paul Nicholson. Welcome, gentlemen. It's lovely to have you with me. What a first week we have had at Alexandra Palace. Shocks aplenty. So there's so much to talk about.

Before we get into it, can I just ask you all for your best moments of the World Championship so far? Let's start with you, Mark. Welcome to the show. Yeah, good afternoon. Hello. I've got to look at Geoffrey de Graaf beating Gary Anderson. I can't believe that that happened.

in the manner that it happened. Delighted for Geoffrey and that for me was the moment just when he leapt up like he'd scored the winning goal in the FA Cup final. So it was a great moment for him. Caught everyone by surprise and Anderson going out so early opens up the door. So yeah, for me, Geoffrey de Graaf. Yeah, he idolised Gary as a teenager, didn't he? So extra, super special for the man who represents Sweden these days even though he's Dutch by birth. Mace, I'll come to you. What about your...

Highlight so far. Littler's record-breaking average, remarkable. Averaged 152 and change in the first nine darts of each of those legs that he won. It was 11.10 and 11 darts. It's as close to perfection as I think I've ever seen on a dartboard. It was remarkable. And you just feel there's more to come as well, which is the extraordinary thing with this kid. Nico, how about you? For me, it's the same. I never thought I would see a set like that. We thought that when Gezi Price...

in the 2021 championship that he won when he had a 136 average in his set. We thought, surely no one's going to do any better than that. But little are shown that there are other levels. But I'd be really happy for Colin Ridds. I think it just goes to show that if you get your personal life right, you can come to a championship like this and do great things. Two games, six sets. Thank you very much. Post-Christmas, I'll be there. So well done, Colin. Yeah, well, and that's just three of...

dozens of moments that have happened during the course of the first week and a bit of these world championships. We have lost 11 seeded players in this second round, because of course the second round is when the seeded players join the fun. It's not quite broken the record yet, but there are still eight matches to play as we're talking here. The afternoon and evening sessions for Monday night are still to be played. So there's eight more seeds in,

in jeopardy potentially and we've lost 11 13 I think is the highest we've had in recent times which was 2019 what chance do you think we have of adding to the 11 seeds that we've already got going home well the 11 seeds gone are Michael Smith Danny Nopper Gary Anderson James Wade Ross Smith Martin Schindler Mike Dedecker Dirk van Dijvenboot Gabriel Clemens Richie Adderson Raymond Barnabout you wouldn't mind seeing them in a quarter final of a world championships and yeah they were all gone just

Just on that average from Luke Littler, I had a set against John Park in the Worlds, and I think it was 118. And if I go back about 15 or 16 years ago, that sort of would still feature in the top 12 of highest set averages. It doesn't even feature now in the top 50, I don't think.

That's the progress this game's made. Game's gone, isn't it? Yeah, it's remarkable. And I think that's reflected by the way the seeds are getting dumped out now because some of them have been, well, a lot of them, to be honest, have been disappointing the performances from the players. I'm not sure whether it's nerves or expectation or...

just coming into the world in bad form but there has been some fabulous performances and I'm with Nico Callan-Ridds was incredible. Aside from that, do you think if you have a poor place Championship finals or you don't get in it, is the gap too big?

do you think now where there's a lot of players coming in undercooked aren't there yeah and I think it's so close that if you go there and have a bit of a mare you haven't got enough time to sort of reset and get going again because the next thing you know you're up on a big stage again and you've still got those doubts from the world sorry from the players championship final coming into the world so yeah I think it's

Is it the longest gap that dart players have between competitive fixtures across a calendar year? Not really. You've got the summer where we have the World Series events in Australia and New Zealand. So post-match play, there might be something...

Players championship-wise, or in some seasons, there's a Euro Tour after the match play. But if you don't feature in the World Series, there's a period of about three, maybe four weeks. I thought it was long. And it used to be six weeks, where if you were not a World Series player and not in the match play and not make a Euro Tour, it used to be like six weeks. And that was frustrating the players because, of course, there's no way of earning any money.

So, 11 seeds. Back to my original point. Are we expecting any more than the 11 seeds that we've already seen disappear? Still to come today.

I don't think Ratajski has any trouble with Toilo. I think Lutman could beat Gilding, and that would be another seed gone in Gilding. I think Josh Rock will be okay against Reece Griffin. Johnny Clayton against Mickey Mantz. I think Johnny's just about turned a corner. The other one that could go could be Potretzky against Van Veen. Gurney Hempel, I thought, played very well so far in these championships. Chizzy's got a bad back, as we know. He's playing Ricky Evans, who has been

He's been playing okay and thinks he's a top 16 player, so that'd be interesting. And Rob Cross could genuinely go against Scott Williams. I agree. Who just got a love affair with Ali Pali, hasn't he? He played brilliant last year. He was outstanding the other night. He was off the leash, and that's when Scott plays his best darts. I think a lot of us were looking at Scott in that game with Nick Will Springer. We said on this podcast a week ago that Springer could spring a surprise.

But the fact is, in the same way that we backed against Joe Cullen, Scott Williams said, well, don't forget about what I can do. And he showed us exactly what he can. And if you think he's done just getting rid of Springer, well, he's going to want to get his teeth into his practice partner. We weren't absolutely wrong on Nico Springer. He actually averaged more than Scott Williams. He averaged nearly 99, Scott Williams 96 points.

Well, there was a set there that he could have won or maybe should have won and then we'd have had a... He's finishing letting down, didn't he? He was finishing. Yeah, it was just one and two darts here that weren't a million miles away. They were grazing the wires but on this occasion didn't go in and yeah, and back to Joe Cullen but that was based on the fact of

Joe's recent form. He's been really struggling and we feared the worst for him. Nobody likes getting proven wrong more than us. He's a good pal of ours, so it's great to see him go up there and have a bit of fire in the belly. Yeah, I was really happy for Joe. I sent a post out on X and I said, as a darts media, we have to be honest, we all backed against him and we did so because of statistics and form.

But the thing is, in previous years, I've had a conversation with Joe when he played Damon Hetter at the World Match Play. We covered it for TalkSport 2 and TalkSport. And he said to the media, everybody fancied Damon to beat me there, but you seem to forget that I'm quite good at this game.

Every time he's backed against, he just comes back with something. And maybe this is what he needs. Because his floor form hasn't been good enough. He's got to be honest about that. But when it comes to the big stage, when he has got...

real motivation when it comes to people backing against him. Look at what he did. Well, I think there were two elements of motivation. I don't know what you think, Mark, but there was first the motivation of proving the doubters wrong, but also the motivation of being back on that stage when he lost that thriller 4-3 to Humphries last year. Just combine that. The problem is we haven't seen enough of that culling this year, have we? That one that went beneath a doubt. He's had a bad year and he's got to acknowledge that. I think, look,

Did he have a valid point in his presser yesterday? Yeah, I think he did. I think with hindsight, he probably didn't go about it the best way that he could have done. So I can see why he's upset and his darts did the talking. I think that's where he should have left it. But look, he could go long in this tournament. He could do, but he needs to as well. You know, the bookmakers didn't have him as the favourite for good reason, but it was a good performance. I was pleased for him. The bottom half of the draw,

is really opening up Anderson. And Michael Smith going out to Kevin Dutes, which was the one that went to, well, potentially it went to a deciding leg, effectively, that Kevin Dutes did the job. And of course, Dutes was very close to knocking out Smith last year. I think you and I commentated on that game, didn't we? And that was just, Smith saved himself two or three times and we thought he'd done enough to rescue it. But as it turned out,

Bully boy's gone. Michael is spending Christmas at home, and that's never a good thing as a dart player with no return ticket. But I think when the dust settles at the start of the 2025 season, I think Michael Smith now understands that he has to start from scratch. He's going to be outside the top 16 of the world by the looks of it, and it's the biggest rankings drop in the history of PDC darts and the order of merit. 485,000 points have been lost.

It can't be any more than that unless they raise the prize money. So Michael's got to draw a line under things. But I think what he should look at in a positive sense is how resolute he was in that last set because Dutz played fantastic. Michael made him play that well. But the most important thing from that game that I took from it as a commentator and someone who just watched it as a fan is just how focused Dutz was when the chips were down.

Because when he was getting darts falling on the floor, he didn't mope, he didn't shake his head. He said, right, I've just got to take this on the chin and I've still got to use the darts that are landing. And then in the last set, they weren't falling on the floor. If he was moping around the stage in set three or four, he loses the game. But he didn't do that. He remained focused and that laser-like look through the board, it kept him into a position where he can win. It's very true. Wonderfully done. And I think for Michael Smith, it will almost...

We talk about it down in the Super Series, like a reset mentality, isn't it? And Nico's right. He can effectively say, right, I'm going from scratch. That's done. The pressure of that. Because that was part and parcel of that performance. So we need Michael Smith version 3.0 now, I guess. Because we talked about version 2.0 that got him the world title. Well, let's put it into real terms, Dan, because we're talking about the number two seed who's been lost from the world championship.

when this tournament is over, he's not even in the match play in six months. He's not in the match play. Do you think he regrets the year after? He said he was going to enjoy being a world champion. He clearly did enjoy it, but he's now, that's coming back to bite him on the back side. I don't know whether we actually trace it back to when he changed his darting equipment. Well, I think, I think,

that was key because and I still I mean he I get on well with Mike and he said no I love the darts they go in perfect I said they go in different and he's like no no he's not having none of it and I totally understand that and listen this is he genuinely believes they're the right darts for him but I think I think it's a combination of

the relief of getting that first world title and then the fact that he pretty much was fairly honest and said look i'm going to stay at home i'm going to go away i'm going to see my family i'm going to go on holidays and he just took his eye off the ball a little bit i think and he hasn't been able to recover and he admitted that he won a place championship event and he said he felt under so much pressure to win it for his new brand yeah so i think there is a little bit of that you know that maybe it's the the imperfect storm for him if you like but you

Can he come back? Yes, of course he can. When I watch him, I never think he's too far away, but we're not seeing that great performance on a regular basis. Those clutch finishes when he was under pressure against Dudes, that just showed the mark of a champion, but...

in the end, you've got to credit Dutz, got the job done, fair play to him. It's an example of how tough the sport is right now. There is loads, we keep saying it every year, there's loads of them and you're seeing that evidence now. It's coming to the surface more often in all the tournaments we look at. Just before we move on, there have been lots of great moments. In terms of matches...

I think you and I, Nico, did Vessel Nyman against Cameron Karolison of South Africa, which he averaged 96, which is an average from nowhere. And it's been really good to see these players coming from all around the world, which is what Barry Hearn wanted with the PDC to raise the profile and raise the standard of darts in areas that aren't traditionally known for their strength in the sport.

You think of Toilo, you think of Nabrida. Caroliston didn't get through, but my word how hard he pushed Neiman in that game. It's important because this is no longer a sport that is dominated when it comes to the World Championship by just the Dutch and people from the United Kingdom. We've seen great stories over the years like John Part who won the very first Alexandra Palace World Championship in 2008. He's from Canada. Hmm.

And this title's only been won by a very select few amount of nations. Five. And only six countries have made the final. That's a really small amount of countries. But what we're starting to see, and Mace can back me up on this, it is the fact that if you look at the last 32 of the tournament and then the last 16, if you go back 20 years and you go back to 2008, how many were English in the last 16? All of them bar one.

Things are different. It's not just England versus the world. It's everybody against everybody. So you've got the Philippines, you've got African nations. We haven't even started in that continent. Give us another 10 years and we'll probably have someone really going far from that continent. But I think the important mark for us is

is to continue the growth in Australia. I think that's stagnated. But what Simon Whitlock did, who has now lost his tour card, by the way, what he did in 2010 was monstrous. What a lot of people don't know, and I don't even know if you know this, Mace, we might have talked about it in the past, before Simon Whitlock made the final in 2010, they used to show the world on a cable network there with a six-month delay.

So you'd have to wait six months to watch the darts. After he made that final, the network actually showed that final live and everybody thought, wow, we can actually watch it live now. That's the kind of effect that these people can have. What kind of effect has Cameron had on South African darts because of what he did, even though he lost?

This is what Barry's talking about. Barry Hearn's perfect on this one because you have to step on that stage and make a difference for your country. And you showed me the footage of how he got through in the African qualifiers. Wild. Absolutely fantastic. Vuvuzelas. Yeah. Vuvuzelas making a comeback. Peter Wyshuri is now a cult hero because he missed double 17 to qualify and to take Cameron out. So...

Peter's now a Kenyan darting hero. I want to see this guy and I think everybody does. I think the Nabreda story is a very similar one. That will be big news in the Philippines right now and the fact that he beat someone who is a proven winner and a major champion in Ross Smith in the Europeans. That will be huge news. And Nico's right actually, we were talking about the Australian one. In America it used to be the same. We'd go to America six months later and it's like the hundreds of channels and you go, oh,

And it was their footage of the world. I'm not sure if it was maybe a rights issue, but that was about the same. That was always about six months later. But obviously darts now has really taken off. I like what Nabrida's doing in dedicating his run to Sandra Exhosing as well, who's very ill. And we just hope he pulls through because he has been diagnosed with something that's very serious. So Filipino darts right now, they're going through...

great thing with Paulo but at the same time they're thinking about their other brother so it's a very strange situation. Yeah, our thoughts go out to him and his family as he continues to recover. Well, thanks for that gents. We need to move on at this point on Aces and Arrows.

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It's time now for GG Poker's Ace Pairing. Now, each episode, the lads will pick out three match-ups that we're most looking forward to for the coming week. Our Ace Pair, King Pair and Queen Pair. And you can try your own hand by heading to the world's largest online poker room. That's ggpoker.co.uk for your try. Now, there's a lot of darts coming up.

this week either side of Christmas and toward the new year so Mark Wilson take it away with your ace pair yeah well I think I've got an ace pair I think it'd be an absolutely great game to have a look at and I am going to go with Joe Cullen and go in price as soon as Cullen won that game against Vessel Nyman against the odds we have to say it set up a tie with going price and you think wow we've got two guys that are desperate for a win and

that maybe have both got a point to prove. It's not been a great year for Gowan. He's missed a lot of tournaments. He's missed a lot of big darts. And he needs a win. He's won twice on the World Series, but they're not ranking victories. And he's sliding down. He's no longer the Welsh number one. Johnny Clayton's overtaken him on that side of it. And these two, whenever they play, seem to get embroiled in fantastic games of darts. Games that go long, that go deep. I think we could be in for an Ali Pali classic. Their head-to-head record is...

virtually level there's not a lot between them two guys desperate for a win and I think that's going to spill out into an absolutely cracking couldn't agree more battle of the cafes isn't it yeah it is battle of the cafes because they both have cafes they're side businesses and they're really good he doesn't now he sold it it's now a poodle parlour there you go he's gone up please be kidding no I'm serious what

I mean, I've got... Breaking news on aces and arrows. As an owner of a dog that goes to a poodle parlour, he'll be making a right few quid. No wonder he doesn't turn up to the darts anymore. He doesn't need to. He's got more properties in Markham than Dennis Priestley's got in Mexborough. Well, wow. But I agree with you. I think that's a great game. And if you think about a couple of the classics that Cullen's had in the past, one of them with Humphreys on the 30th of December last year, which nobody will ever forget...

But let's not forget the one that he had with Johnny Clayton as well a few years back, which went to the very last leg. And Joe took out a brilliant 100 checkout at the end. And I suppose it's one all in his classics. And I'd love him to have another one because this could be adrenaline-fuelled and exactly what people want to see. No doubt that Joe will be fizzing still when he gets back on that. But Gerwin actually looked really good in his second round encounter. In spells, these two get on really well too. They're great friends away from the hockey. So that's probably why...

For one, the games have been good and their head-to-head record is a close one. Was it 12-10? 12-10, yeah. In favour of Pricey? Yeah. Yeah, that doesn't surprise me. So, listen, when you...

When you play your mate, it's tough, but at least you're relaxed and you're not put off by anything because you know them so well. This will be their 23rd meeting, so they know each other inside out. It'll be a good game, I think. OK, so Mark has gone with Joe Cullen, Gerwin Price. Chris Mason, I've come to you for the king pair. What have you got for us? Yeah, I've gone for stable mates, Rob Cross against Scott Williams. Both managed and looked after him.

by Rab Bain who still looks after me to this very day and did for well the best part of 20 years and this is going to be they haven't played for a couple of years now it's 2-1 in favour of cross but

Scott Williams, he's absolutely buzzing. He's on cloud nine right now and he'll have no fear at all playing Rob Cross. And this will be Rob's first game. This is his last game on tonight. So he's coming in cold against a player coming in hot. There's no thing about Williams being somewhat inhibited about playing his mate and his practice partner or anything like that? There's no inhibitions there? He doesn't. I don't think he...

I don't think he's scared of anything. I think he'd beat his grand 6-0 if he had the chance. I think if you were to give Scott a dictionary and show him the word, he'd say, I've never heard that word before. I've never even felt that before. He just doesn't move that way. You bump into him at an airport, he just says, right, where do I go? He's just...

so laid back actually you're right he wasn't even scared of the Ali Pali Wasp was he because it came for him wearing the yellow and black and he just swatted it away he was trying to get it like he was batfink now there's a bit of a blast from the past but my word I think nobody's had a cooler exchange with the Ali Pali Wasp than him no so alright that's your king pair

Rob Cross against Scott Williams. All right, Queen pair, we come to you for your selection, Paul Nicholson. I'm going to go for the Ryan Derby, which is going to be post-Christmas. Joyce against Searle. Searle was really good in his first game. Looked very composed. Got rid of his opponent in about 15 minutes of game time. Averaged nearly 100, didn't he? It was a typical Ryan Searle performance. There was good set play as well in the first two. Really good explosive levels. But his ability to find tops...

It's his biggest weapon and he's going to need it because up against Joyce who disposed of Danny Nopper very efficiently with some sensational finishing and the way he was able to show how much he wanted to win that match. We never see Ryan Joyce celebrate, but he did towards the end of the third set and I think it scuppered him for about two or three legs after that, but then he was able to get the match won and

Don't ever forget just how good he is at finishing. Damon Hett is the best in the world at finishing. Statistically, that is a fact. But Ryan Joyce is second. 42% all year long.

He's very, very dangerous. And he's been to the quarterfinals before. Well, you guys, you did that game. I was listening to you on TalkSport 2 when Joyce came from behind to sort out Knopper. Yeah. Well, I said to Chris, I fancied him to get the job done as well. He's a player. He's got levels in his game. And he's finishing. Nico's right. As good as Searle is on tops,

Joyce is better on double 16 I think he's the most accurate on double 16 of anybody in world darts that's because he doesn't like tops the way his darts land yeah exactly he just has a read on it and it just I suppose it's a bit like Littler and double 10 you know you could almost just blindfold them and they probably he walks up expecting to hit it doesn't he he's not hoping he's expecting he's going to hit it now as a Ryan Searle fanboy I'm naturally in his corner for this one but

He's never got really deep into a world championship. I don't know whether you think this could be his year. I think he's... Look, we've seen him in players' championships when he gets to finals regularly. Certainly earlier in the season, he seems to dominate it. But he hasn't. Like you said, he's not gone deep into big tournaments. And I...

I think that's a question mark over him, if I'm honest. I think until he does it, I wouldn't be in a rush to put any money on him to do it. And I'd have to say, looking at that, I'd probably side with Ryan Joyce. Yeah, I mean, he's got every facet to be going deep in these big TV tournaments. That's why his ranking has stalled a bit, hasn't it? Because he just doesn't go deep in the most meaningful of the tournaments. I can't call this game. I am firmly sitting with splinters because...

The weapons that I see from these two players, you've got the right hook of tops from Searle. You've got the left upper cut, which is the double 16 and the double 8 region for Ryan Joyce. I think this game hinges on scoring. I think Searle, from previous behaviours, has the better scoring. Agreed. But if it clicks for Joyce, boy, we could be in for something. Okay. So you've had your ace, king and queen pair from the three of them.

Great choices as well. You can hear all those games on TalkSport 2. And you can watch along with us on the TalkSport Darts YouTube channel as well that you can now subscribe to. Just before we move on, this one little element of the World Championships I wanted to get your opinions on, guys. And there's a guy playing this afternoon, Alexis Toilo from the Philippines, who is a very, very slow player, very methodical. You might have seen him shaking his left arm out

before every throw, before every visit. And to get from dart one to dart three is glacial. And I don't know whether you guys think spirit of the game is being compromised in any way or whether darts players have just got to do what they've got to do to make themselves comfortable.

Mark? Look, I did that game. I was infuriated watching him. I don't know how Richard Veenstra kept his patience. I think he very nearly lost it at the end, but that might be more out of frustration of the result than the performance. But I think they're going to have to look at introducing a shot clock. This guy, it was 30 seconds, just taking too long. I understand he's got his routine and his rhythm to do, but it is bordering on...

If he would have played James Hurrell the way that they both played in the game, it would have taken three hours. And the people don't want that. They want to see people playing darts. That's the love of our sport. It's quick, it's reactive. Yeah, and look, we know some players are slower than others, and that's fine. I think he was bordering on too slow.

Guys, you're the ex-professionals. Yeah, listen, he's playing Ratajski and Ratajski won't have none of it. Of all the players that you don't want to be playing, if you're going to try those little games, he won't get away with it, Ratajski. Yeah, he doesn't blink, does he, Ratajski? It's like watching Usyk in a face-off with Tyson Fury. I'm with Mark. We need to find a way because the big attraction to our sport is that

listen, a match can be over in 15 minutes, which we've seen, and then we could see a battle of attrition where it's going back and forth and going all the way in sets, exciting moments. But ultimately, people love the darts because it's quick and it's, you know, the one leg is only 501 points long and then we're on to the next one and on to the next one. And that's the appeal. If you've got, if you've got, like I say, people, if it was James Earl against,

Toilo people just switch off I think also like you said he does the three practice throws before he actually before he goes to the hockey well we're seeing I think now more people see Dimitri do it quite a lot he'll go through he'll envisage what he's going to do but he does it at the back of the hockey and then when he walks to the hockey he's ready to go I think maybe he could lose the three he could maybe do that in his own time rather than in his opponent's time

Even Littler did a ghost throw when he was in the final set, but he did it when he was walking. It was in motion. It was just to loosen the right arm up. I think it's a two-four thing with Toilo. I think he's too slow. I think it's something he's going to have to work on. He's a very successful player. I have not seen him play until this championship. I've seen lots of results. I've been very excited to watch him.

He's obviously loving the tournament because he played really well against Richard, but Richard's one of the nicest guys on tour. And even he's got his level where he's like, come on, let's sort this out. But there's another thing as well. There is a discretionary rule with points, which was communicated to Dylan Slevin because the board was mashed when he played against William O'Connor. So that's up to the tournament director, Graham Fairhouse, to speak to Dylan about that. He's since been taken out by Dimitri Vandenbergh.

Everybody knows how I feel about the chalk debate because Toilo's got chalk on the darts. When those darts were hitting the board, it was like fireworks going off. Some players don't like chalk on their hands. They find it very disrupting to their grip on their hands. And I think if you're going to put in a discretionary rule about the playing surface being compromised because of points, you've got to look at exterior influence as well, like chalk.

So if you put loads of chalk on your darts, like say Johnny Haynes does, Keith Delahaz in the past, Toylo does, if you don't like chalk, that's an exterior influence. So how's that fair to the other person? You're affecting the playing surface with something you use. I don't think that's fair.

I really don't. It's fascinating stuff. It's fascinating stuff. And the DRA and the PDC need to take a look at this, you would think. But, well, let's see how deep Alexis Toilo goes in this tournament or whether the Polish Eagle can take care of him in one of the matches we're bringing you during the course of this week. Carla only has the best tech. Can't connect to network. But she didn't have the best internet. So she got Cox Multigig speeds to power all her...

Now, all her tech is connected. Exactly. Step it up with Cox Multi-Gig Speeds. Available everywhere. Two gig download speeds, individual speeds vary. See cox.com for details. All right, we're almost at the end of the show now, chaps, but I need to...

Test your craniums at this point. It's time to end on a game. Whilst we're at it, let's tell you all about an exciting competition that you can be a part of at home because TalkSport has partnered with GG Poker to offer you the chance to win a darts-inspired home entertainment package.

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Now, Nico and Mace know what's going on, but I need to explain for Mark, who wasn't here last week. Abby was in your place, Abigail Davis. This is known as the five-dart draw. We will test you guys on just how much they really know about the world of darts. I'm going to give you five clues...

about a famous dart player, all you've got to do is guess who they are. Each clue will reveal more, get easier and easier as we go on, about the famous player. More points are available, the less clues you get it in. You say your name to buzz in, in lieu of the fact we don't have any buzzers here. The name's just fine. And if you think you know the answer, great. If you give me an incorrect answer, Mark, just so I know you will be frozen out for that clue round until the next clue is given, okay? So you...

You might want to be careful with your guessing. Abigail Davis won last week, so she's got three points. So you're on her team, effectively, Will. So she's in the lead. So are you ready? Here we go. Say your name if you think you know who it is. Clue one. I was born on the 4th of June, 1986. 1986. You can just take a wild guess if no one's, you know. Nickle.

Go on then. I tried his name last week. I'm going to try it again. Kim Heibrecht. It is not Kim Heibrecht. So you're frozen out. So I don't know. You two guys can have free guesses if you want. Might be worth a try. Fourth of June, 1986, which would make that person... 39? Yeah, heading towards the 40s. Any ideas?

No, no. Chris isn't going to take a guess. You're going to take a guess, Wills? It's that awkward age, isn't it? I don't want to slap anyone. I don't want anyone to be older than they are. All right, in case we're in danger of putting anybody down for their apparent look, let's go on to clue two, all right? Standing by. I've played in nine PDC World Dance Championships, but not since 2022.

I've played in nine PDC World Dance Championships, but not featured since 2022. I can hear the cogs whirring now. Say your name if you think you know an answer. God, it's all gone quiet over there. Am I going to have to move on? I'm playing for a nil little draw here. You are, aren't you? Abbey's loving this. No one's got it. No? No. It's all gone quiet. Do you want me to move on? Nickle. I'll have a guess. Go on. Keegan Brown. It is not Keegan Brown.

No, but no guesses from Mark or from Chris. So we'll move on, okay? Clue three. I made history in 2020 when I became the first player from my continent to win a PDC title. Nickle. It's Devin Peterson. Yeah. It is Devin Peterson. Well played, Nickle. He gets the points this week.

And you'd have got it from clue four or five, as you can imagine. I'm popular among darts fans for dancing to my walk-on music, Shakira's Waka Waka, and my nickname, the African Warrior. It was, indeed, Devin Peterson. Well done to you, Nico. You get the points this week. Let's see if you can...

build on that and take the lead over the Abbey Mark team Mace has got work to do at this point yet to get off the mark you don't win anything by the way for getting that right it's just the pride of knowing that Devin Peterson was the answer I like pride we love a bit of pride

Listen, my thanks to Mark Wilson, Chris Mason, Paul Nicholson for being with us again. Have a lovely Christmas, guys. We will see you next week on Aces and Arrows. There's a lot of darts to come before then, which you can listen to on the TalkSport network and, of course, via the TalkSport Darts YouTube channel. But in the meantime, why not check out GG Poker, which is the world's largest online poker room. Cheerio. See you now.

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