Legendary darts star Paul Lim will make a remarkable 25th World Championship appearance, 39 years after his first, when he returns to the Alexandra Palace stage on Friday evening.
The 66-year-old fan’s favourite wrote his name into the history books when he became the first player to hit a nine-dart finish at the World Championship when he completed the perfect leg at the Lakeside event back in 1990.
After scooping £52,000 for the achievement, more than the eventual winner, Phil Taylor, he went on to reach the quarter-finals – his best run in 12 Lakeside appearances, having debuted in the 1982 tournament.
After first appearing in the PDC World Championship in 1997, it took Lim until the 2001 staging of the sport’s showpiece event to claim his first victory when he defeated Dan Lauby, the father of 2020/21 debutant Danny Lauby, before losing 3-2 to number two seed Alan Warriner-Little.
An 11-year absence followed two preliminary round exits before Lim returned to the World Championship for the 2013 tournament at Ally Pally, where he was beaten by Michael van Gerwen who would go on to reach the final for the first time.
Five years later, with a couple of preliminary round defeats in between, Lim returned to Alexandra Palace and rekindled some of his old magic with a win against former Lakeside Champion Mark Webster.
In his second round tie against two-time World Champion Gary Anderson, Lim almost completed the most incredible feat when he fired in eight perfect darts before missing double 12 for what would’ve been a second World Championship nine-darter more than a quarter of a century after his first.
He qualified again in each of the next two years but suffered early exits at the hands of Ross Smith and Luke Woodhouse.
Lim’s opponent in this year’s opening round, former World Youth Champion Luke Humphries, wasn’t even born for the first half of the Singapore Slinger’s previous 24 World Championship outings.
He will be cast once again in the familiar role of the underdog but there may yet be another chapter in the legend of Lim.
2020/21 William Hill World Darts Championship
Schedule of Play
Friday December 18
Evening Session (1800 GMT)
3x First Round, 1x Second Round
Dirk van Duijvenbode v Bradley Brooks (R1)
John Henderson v Marko Kantele (R1)
Luke Humphries v Paul Lim (R1)
James Wade v Callan Rydz (R2)
Best of five sets (no tie-breaks in deciding sets)