
Darts fans hail ‘greatest thing I've ever seen' as star lands extremely rare triple-bullseye checkout
And it has certainly not disappointed after a Conan Whitehead landed an epic nine-darter.
2
However, that may have now been topped by Thomas Banks after he landed a remarkable 150 checkout... with THREE bulls.
Banks was up against Steve Plumstead in a Group C clash with the score 1-1.
Plumstead, 30, had just hit 133 at the board to bring his score down from 273 to 140.
Banks had 150 to hit or risk his rival being able to checkout.
And the 18-year-old prodigy, tipped to follow Luke Littler to the top of the darts world, made his three throws count.
The cameraman had zoomed in on treble 19, expecting him to aim there.
However, Banks instead went straight for the bull.
That set him on a path to needing two more.
And he duly delivered to move 2-1 ahead in the match, turning to the camera with his arms raised out either side of him.
PDC stage official Owen Binks was stunned at the trip.
Taking to social media, he said: "Refereed nearly 6000 matches for this business and that is arguably the greatest thing I've seen!!
"TAKE A BOW THOMAS BANKS!!!"
Other fans joined the chorus of applause for The Bulldog.
One fan said: "Top arrows. Don't think I've ever seen that before."
A second said: "Beautiful that."
Another said: "There you go, this lad has it. Brilliant darts, just take a bow right now Thomas."
A fourth added: "Brilliant checkout 150."
Banks used the momentum of the 150 to win the match 4-1, which had followed a run of four defeats on the spin at the Super Series.
He won the series last year, in similar fashion to Littler who had won it on his route to the PDC before eventually winning the World Championship.
List of all-time Darts World Champions
BELOW is a list of darts world champions by year.
The list does not include winners from the pre-Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) era or BDO world champions.
That means Raymond van Barneveld, for example, is only listed once - Barney also won four BDO titles - and none of Eric Bristow's five BDO titles are included.
1994 - Dennis Priestley
1995 - Phil Taylor
1996 - Phil Taylor (2)
1997 - Phil Taylor (3)
1998 - Phil Taylor (4)
1999 - Phil Taylor (5)
2000 - Phil Taylor (6)
2001 - Phil Taylor (7)
2002 - Phil Taylor (8)
2003 - John Part
2004 - Phil Taylor (9)
2005 - Phil Taylor (10)
2006 - Phil Taylor (11)
2007 - Raymond van Barneveld
2008 - John Part (2)
2009 - Phil Taylor (12)
2010 - Phil Taylor (13)
2011 - Adrian Lewis
2012 - Adrian Lewis (2)
2013 - Phil Taylor (14)
2014 - Michael van Gerwen
2015 - Gary Anderson
2016 - Gary Anderson (2)
2017 - Michael van Gerwen (2)
2018 - Rob Cross
2019 - Michael van Gerwen (3)
2020 - Peter Wright
2021 - Gerwyn Price
2022 - Peter Wright (2)
2023 - Michael Smith
2024 - Luke Humphries
2025 - Luke Littler
Most World Titles
14 - Phil Taylor
3 - Michael van Gerwen
2 - John Part, Adrian Lewis, Gary Anderson, Peter Wright
1 - Dennis Priestley, Raymond van Barneveld, Rob Cross, Gerwyn Price, Michael Smith, Luke Humphries, Luke Littler

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