Just millimetres from perfection. Again.
Paul Lim is something of a cult hero in the darts world. He’s 63 years of age, and he’s still going strong more than 36 years since his debut on the professional scene.
In 1990, as a sprightly 36-year-old, Lim became the first man to hit a nine dart finish at the World Championhips. It took 19 years and Raymond Van Barnevald to repeat that feat on the biggest stage in darts.
And yet 27 years on from Lim’s famous groundbreaking heroics, only millimetres kept the Singapore native from completing the perfect finish again and sending the Ally Pally crowd buck mad. He did that anyway, some might say.
You can watch the agonising ninth dart right here, courtest of PDC channel, and the reaction from the crowd really does tell a story in itself.
So bloody close.
The Singapore slinger hit eight darts right on the money, before his final dart landed just outside double 12, and prevented him from reaching immortality for the second time.
SO CLOSE TO PERFECTION | Paul Lim talks through what would have been a moment in darting history….#WHdarts #LoveTheDarts pic.twitter.com/4Ikgh2O9PL
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) December 22, 2017
The reaction from the fans inside Ally Pally says it all…
That was so close to incredible history from Paul Lim! #LoveTheDarts #WHDarts pic.twitter.com/IM3v2Nmg8a
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) December 22, 2017
Unfortunately for Lim, Anderson recovered to take that leg, his sixth on the trot, before he coasted to a routine 4-1 win in the match, but even he was hoping Lim would have his moment.
ANDERSON WINS | It wasn't pretty, but Gary Anderson gets over the line, knocking out darting legend, Paul Lim.#WHdart #LoveTheDarts pic.twitter.com/6jymRJUa97
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) December 22, 2017
“If Paul had got the nine-darter it would have been the best Christmas present ever,” he said to PDC.
“I thought it was in, when he hit the trebles I thought, ‘he’s going to hit this’.”
“I tell you what, I can’t breathe. I’m going to have nightmares tonight I’ll tell you that.”
