I took on a former Darts world champion to see if I could beat him - this is how it went

For some, it’s being able to play the guitar while, for others, it’s being able to learn magic, play cards or become a chess grandmaster.

In my case, I’ve always wanted to be really good at darts, having possessed decent hand/eye coordination since I was a child and having loved watching it for years with my grandparents and as a grown up.

I’ve been a part-time chucker for years, practicing every now and then at home and at the pub and, occasionally, hitting decent scores and winning doubles.

However, my irregular success pales into comparison to the current stars of the game like Luke Littler, Luke Humphries, Gerwyn Price, Stephen Bunting and Josh Rock, who hit 180s for fun and reel in the Big Fish (a 170 checkout) so often, it’s almost expected.

My grand total, lifetime, of three 180s and a highest checkout of 110 makes it unlikely I’ll ever get to grace the stages of Alexandra Palace, Winter Gardens or even Aldersley Stadium in Wolverhampton and, at 44, it seems a bit late in the day to quit my job and go full time with darts, but the aspiration is always there to play the best and see if I can get anywhere near.

A chance to try my luck came on Tuesday, August 4, when I was invited to come down to Smart Energy Training’s open day at their new Stourbridge base due to a former world darts champion being in attendance.

Mark Webster won the British Darts Organisation’s (BDO) World Darts Championship in 2008 and had success playing in the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) for a number of years, most notably beating 16-time world champion Phil Taylor in the PDC World Championships in 2011.

Nowadays, he‘s retired from competitive darts and is an analyst for Sky Sports and ITV, but still keeps his eye in and was at Smart Energy to take on members of staff as part of the open day in a nine-dart-challenge.

He said he did a lot of work with Smart Energy and enjoyed being part of the events.

He said: “We did one of these last week with the Smart Energy training centre to promote it and had a bit of fun with some prizes and the prize of a drill for the winner, so it was good last week and good to be here this week.

“I don’t play much and don’t practice a lot, but when I’m here and I get to play for a couple of hours, I enjoy it and we generally have a good laugh.

“The standard here has been a bit of a mixed bag, but the highest score is by a guy called Aidan, who got 158, and so you’ve got nine darts and I’ve got six and so you just need to score that me to win.”

He made it sound so simple, particularly as I hadn’t picked up a dart in ages. I might have a set, but I haven’t played for ages, which I proved when the first dart I threw nearly missed the board altogether.

Still, after a few practice darts, I felt ready to give it a go and played my first three darts which, if I am being honest, were very underwhelming, with two ones and a 20 for a score of 22.

The 2008 world champion stepped up and, with his familiar left hand throw, threw a simple 60. It was eye-opening to see his stance and his throw and realise how much work I would need.

However, I then had a moment of suddenly looking like I knew what I was doing when, with my next dart, I hit it straight in the middle of the treble 20, with a subsequent 20 and a one giving me a more respectable 81.

Mark then threw 80 to finish off at 140 after six darts, leaving me 38 to beat him and 56 to take the lead.

I’d love to say that I went treble 20 three times to rattle off a 180 to rapturous applause, but I managed 41, beating Mark by four points with a grand total of 144.

However, it was a win and probably the only chance I’m ever going to get to beat a former world champion and Mark Webster was very gracious and very helpful with my throwing stance, so I will take the win in whatever way it comes.

We all have our dreams and things we’d like to achieve in our lives and, just for a few minutes, I got to enjoy mine inside a Stourbridge plumbing training facility. How’s that for a bit of Bully?