In the latest edition of his new column 'Ask Ochepedia', PDC Stats Analyst Christopher Kempf draws on 45 years of comprehensive darts data to answer a series of statistical questions...
Q1) What's the maximum number of 170 checkouts recorded by an individual player in a tournament or match?
Josh Rock throws his third 170 finish of the tournament!#Darts l #EuropeanTour l #EDGP24 (ET4)
— Arjan Ronde (@ArjanRonde) April 21, 2024
What is the individual and total ET record? @ochepedia pic.twitter.com/f0xaANWc4L
Prizes awarded in televised events to the player recording the highest checkout are no longer common, but early in the history of darts there was a great deal of uncertainty as to whether the prize would be claimed by a player checking out 170.
Before 1990 only two had been recorded in the BDO World Championship, and as recently as 2014, the same event awarded £5000 to the high checkout hitter, Robbie Green, for a 164.
In the PDC, however, nearly every high checkout of every televised event is a 170, and it is by no means uncommon. The 2024 UK Open saw four recorded; with eight being hit at the 2023/24 World Championship.
This fact was recently given emphasis when Josh Rock - present for only 30 legs of the 2024 European Grand Prix - completed three 170s - the most ever by an individual in a European Tour event. (Michael van Gerwen, who had four at the 2016 UK Open, still holds the overall record.)
Rock reeled in two of those 'big fishes' in his opening match against Jeffrey Sparidaans, but was not the first to do so in a European Tour match.
That honour belongs to Joe Cullen, who broke new ground with his two 170s against Dirk van Duijvenbode back in March.
Stephen Bunting also repeated the feat during last weekend's Austrian Darts Open, producing a brace of 170 checkouts in his deciding-leg victory against Richard Veenstra.
In the history of the European Tour, a player has attempted a 170 finish 3,771 times, with 114 successful checkouts resulting, a 3% conversion rate.
The probability that a 170 will be attempted at all in a leg is 7.5%, and completed is 0.2%. We may have a bit longer to wait to see three 170s in a Euro Tour match - such a one-in-80 million proposition.
Q2) How likely is it that a player will have a lower first-nine average than an overall average?
Players expect to throw 140s and 180s in their first few visits to the board to get down to a finish as quickly as possible, and thus first-nine-darts average is often used as a measure of a player's scoring power.
But occasionally, the scores a player produces at the beginning of a leg drags his overall average down, especially if he is losing to an opponent in a lopsided match.
When James Wade averaged 86.76 in his first-round loss to Ritchie Edhouse last week, he had only one two-treble visit out of 24 in his 2-6 loss, but managed a 125 checkout, 100% doubles accuracy and a 162 setup to exceed his first-nine average by six points.
This phenomenon occurs to about 11% of losing players on the European Tour, and even to 4% of winners (most of whom hit more than 50% of their doubles).
The record for this statistic on the European Tour is held not by James Wade - though he has ten such matches - but by notorious 180 marksman Dave Chisnall, who in 2020, averaged just 65 with his first nine darts thanks to 13 trebleless visits out of 21.
However, Chisnall significantly improved later on in the leg for an overall average of 82 - a 17.75 point difference between first-nine and overall averages, which will be difficult for any player to surpass in victory or defeat.
Q3) Who has the most perfect attendance in Players Championship events?
Chris what’s Steve Beaton’s run of consistent games in the players c-ship without missing a tournament? In my time on the tour he’s been to everyone!likewise Brendan, he’s never skipped a tournament since we’ve been travelling last 13+yrs both have to be miles ahead of everyone
— Mickey Mansell (@C10noeCyclone) April 15, 2024
The PDC player who has appeared in the most Players Championship events is one who satisfies a unique set of criteria.
He must have held a Tour Card in every year since the system's inception in 2011, and furthermore must have been ranked high enough in the PDC's old points system to have warranted inclusion in PDC events before that season.
But he also must never have been ranked high enough - unlike Phil Taylor and James Wade - to have enjoyed the luxury of skipping ProTour weekends without fear of a deleterious impact on his ranking, or of failing to qualify for the Players Championship Finals.
Even for the very few players remaining who have been both eligible to participate and for whom that participation was vital to their careers, those few must never have taken a day off for medical, family or personal reasons for more than ten years.
Ian White and Vincent van der Voort have both appeared in more than 90% of Players Championship events in the Tour Card era, but Van der Voort missed a single tournament in 2016 and White, with a nearly perfect record extending back to 2010, missed a single event in 2021 to break his streak.
Brendan Dolan's streak of appearances is unbroken from 2011 to the present, but Steve Beaton deserves recognition for being the most omnipresent competitor in PDC events, having appeared in more than 360 consecutive Players Championships (and won two) since his absence from one held in Canada in 2009.
Luke Littler was two years old the last time 'The Bronzed Adonis' missed a Players Championship event.