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Ammo89 t1_j2ymcn4 wrote

Reply to comment by aflickering in The man who was born to be World Champion fulfils his destiny, as Michael Smith defeats Michael van Gerwen 7-4 to claim the biggest prize in darts and become world number one! by carnifex2005

Who was the other kind of short older man that was always in the finals. Felt like any time I saw darts on sports channel there he was. This bald guy MVG, also some dude with a either braided beard or long rat tail.

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aflickering t1_j2ymzix wrote

that’d be phil taylor, the greatest ever (won 14 of the last 25 world championships). he’s from my town! and you may be thinking of simon whitlock, the aussie number 1 for many years (although overtaken recently), actually won them the darts world cup for the first time in 2022.

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Ammo89 t1_j30yqbb wrote

Just googled those names. Exactly the faces I was thinking of. Crazy how long they stayed at the top.

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aflickering t1_j31dxx1 wrote

that’s a fun thing about darts, you have guys who go into freefall in their 20s but then you have others who don’t even emerge at the top level until their 40s. there are players in the top 50 in the world who are well into their 50s in age and played their first world championships back in the 90s when i was a kid watching it on the bbc.

at the other end of the spectrum, another exciting thing about the game right now is that arguably the best teenager in the world is female. women’s darts has made some strides lately and a woman beat a couple of men at the world championship a few years back, but this kid beau greaves is a different animal, so that’s gonna be interesting to follow.

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