Florian Hempel recalls bizarre darts warm-up with José de Sousa: "Seven times where he said he’d left me on tops, but I didn’t have tops once"
PDCThursday, 23 July 2026 at 17:08
In the milestone 300th episode of “Game on”, hosts Elmar Paulke and Florian Hempel looked back at the most emotional, best, and quirkiest moments in darts history. While Paulke reflected on numerous special darts moments, Hempel focused mainly on his own career. The Cologne-based pro also recalled a quirky warm-up with Grand Slam winner José de Sousa.
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In the category of quirkiest moments, Hempel chose a story from the European Championship 2021 in Salzburg for second place. It was a special tournament for the German. He had only won his Tour Card earlier that year, and Salzburg marked his first time on a Major stage.
Quirky warm-up with José de Sousa
“At the players’ hotel we had practice boards downstairs. So I started throwing there, there were about four or six practice boards. It was one of the first tournaments back on mainland Europe with fans. In Salzburg they only let in 1,500 spectators.”
Crowned his career with the Grand Slam of Darts 2020
“I was warming up on the practice boards at the hotel and at some point the boards got a bit crowded. People didn’t really know me yet. Sure, they might have seen me on tour. Then I was bouncing around and everyone thought I was a ball boy or something and wasn’t even allowed to play there,” Hempel said with a grin.
Eventually José de Sousa joined him. At that time the Portuguese was among the absolute elite and had won the Grand Slam of Darts the year before. He was also one of the big names in the field in Salzburg.
“Yeah, and then de Sousa showed up at some point. He was in really good form back then and asked if we wanted to warm up together. Sure, what do you want to play, I asked. He said 121.”
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What followed stuck with Hempel. Throughout his career, de Sousa was known for quirky counting errors. During the warm-up with Hempel, the Portuguese apparently showcased this unintentional specialty in striking fashion.
“I think up to 130 we had the situation seven times where he said he’d left me on tops. But I didn’t have tops once. He had miscounted seven times by then. It was 37, 34, 35. It was the craziest round of 121 of my life.”
At some point Hempel began to follow his practice partner’s throws more closely. Normally, in a practice game you rely on your partner to call the correct remaining score. With de Sousa, that clearly wasn’t an option that day.
“Honestly, I had to double-check everything. Normally you just go by what your practice partner tells you. But then I eventually stood there and watched: What’s he doing now? I figured he’d go 14 for tops, then he throws 16 and tells me I’ve got double 20 left. Then I didn’t know either: Do I say something or not?” Hempel said with a laugh.
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Paulke, who clearly enjoyed the story, was especially impressed by the success de Sousa achieved despite his well-known counting issues. “Crazy that he was so successful for such a long time with those problems. I mean, he won the Grand Slam of Darts.”
Hempel added that de Sousa had also reached the Premier League final against Jonny Clayton. Although the Portuguese lost there, he was still one of the most successful players in the world at the time.
“That’s a great story, that’s good,” Paulke concluded the quirky recollection.
Samuel GillChief Content Officer
Samuel Gill is the Chief Content Officer (CCO) of DartsNews.com, a role he has held since 2020. He is responsible for editorial governance across the platform, including setting content standards, overseeing accuracy and consistency, and guiding long-term editorial strategy across professional darts coverage. Since joining, he has contributed more than 10,000 articles and editorial pieces, playing a central role in the development and daily operation of the site.
Based in Leicester, Samuel has extensive experience in darts media and has been closely involved in coverage of the professional darts circuit for several years. Within the UK darts community, he is a recognised figure known for his consistent editorial output and ongoing reporting on major tournaments and developments across the PDC calendar.
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