In his latest column, PDC Stats Analyst @ochepedia dissects the remarkable maximum-hitting of Luke Littler and Gary Anderson, who are poised to create history over the coming months... 👉 bit.ly/180sRecord
Luke Littler and Gary Anderson poised to create 180 records in coming months and break new darting ground
PDCThursday, 05 September 2024 at 08:21
With the end of 2024 incoming, records could yet be broken including most 180's in a year with Christopher Kempf also known as Ochepedia penning his latest column for the PDC about Luke Littler and Gary Anderson.
Currently in a season Michael Smith and Peter Wright (714 and 679) hold the most 180's but with Littler and Anderson set to play a lot more tournaments yet, it is a record which will likely tumble as he explains.
"In 1979, Gary Anderson was nine years old and would not begin to play darts for another 17 years. Luke Littler would not be born for another 28, four years after the player against whom Lowe threw those five maxima, Leighton Rees, had passed away. These two are breaking new ground for maxima thrown, and it is a testament to the evolution of professional darts equipment and talent that a teenage player can throw five 180s in fewer than five legs, and a player's scoring potential is measured by how many hundreds of 180s they throw in a year," wrote Kempf for PDC.
"Littler and Anderson - some 36 years apart in age - are both on the verge of smashing records for 180 totals and rates set by players already considered among the sport's most powerful scorers of all-time. With per-visit scores not being consistently recorded until 2018, we are unfortunately unable to compare either player to the legendary exploits of Phil Taylor at his 2009-2010 zenith - exactly how many maxima he threw in those years is a fact lost to history.
"But for the past six complete seasons, we know exactly how many 180s each player threw and how many legs it took them to do so, allowing us to determine which players, in which years, are the most outstanding volume scorers in darts.
"2022 saw Michael Smith capture the biggest ranking title of his career at the Grand Slam of Darts, before he celebrated his landmark triumph at Alexandra Palace in January of the next year. In addition to all that, it has entered into history as the only year in which a single player threw more than 700 maxima.
"With more than eight months of darts completed in 2024, Luke Littler currently holds the fourth-highest rate of 180s ever seen for a player contesting more than 1000 legs, at 0.362 per leg.Littler is the fastest player ever to accumulate 500 maxima in a season, aided by last weekend's German Darts Championship which saw him record the highest rate of 180s ever seen by a finalist in a stage event."
But whilst Littler should be marvelled at, another player who should in the view of Kempf is Gary Anderson who would create a record not to be surpassed if he keeps going.
"Should Littler continue throwing maxima at his current rate, and continue to enter enough tournaments and win enough matches in them to maintain that rate, he will break Smith's record, and even have an outside chance of reaching 800 180s for the first time.
"Littler, by virtue of being a Premier League and European Tour champion in 2024, has already played more than 1400 legs. Few players will ever throw as many darts as that, which is effectively necessary to challenge the total 180s record.
"However, if we reduce the leg threshold slightly, we discover another astonishing achievement: in 600+ legs played by Gary Anderson, the 'Flying Scotsman' is averaging more than 0.43 per leg. That is a figure so far beyond the record figure of 0.376 that, if it holds through to the end of the year, may take years for another player to approach, let alone surpass."
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