Nine-dart Lewis hits Jackpot

Adrian Lewis enjoyed a night of darting dreams as he hit a nine-darter on the way to winning his first Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship with a thrilling 7-5 victory over Gary Anderson in an Alexandra Palace classic.

'Jackpot' Lewis was unstoppable at times, especially at the start of the match as he hit the first nine-darter ever seen in a World Championship final - both players peppering the treble 20 in the early exchanges.

After winning the first leg, Anderson then saw Lewis win the next six, with the first set coming with a pulsating 123 average and including four 180s, while Anderson was averaging 106 but still could not win a leg.

Lewis, 25, then moved into a 6-3 lead before Anderson launched a stirring fightback, bringing the game back to 6-5 with a mesmerising 164 outshot helping him on the way.

Despite two bounce outs, though, Lewis gathered himself and clinched the title on double 11, completing the win with 20 180s, an average of just under 100 and three ton-plus finishes, while Anderson hit 10 180s and averaged 99 with four big finishes.

History

Never before has any match, let alone the world final, seen such an explosive start as both Lewis and Anderson came storming out of the blocks with some superhuman arrows that had Alexandra Palace rocking to its foundations.

Anderson took the first leg before Lewis reeled off the next six, including making his own slice of history as he bagged the nine-darter.

His two 180 maximums followed by a seventh treble 20, treble 19 and double 12 brought the house down - and this was just in the third leg of the match!

What followed was everything a world darts final should be - mind-bending scoring mixed with a nerve-jangling comeback and excruciating doubles misses that had the crowd on the edge of their seats all night.

From 3-1 down, Anderson battled back to 3-3 and even went ahead for the first time since the opening leg at the start of the seventh set, but Lewis hit back, as he did throughout the final, to take that set and lead 4-3.

Crucial misses at tops and double ten saw Anderson fall 6-3 behind, and his chances looked to have gone out of the window, but the Flying Scotsman came flying back into the contest with the 11th set going his way 3-0 and all of a sudden a shock comeback was on the cards.

Final push

Lewis took a break, though, and came back out firing once again, with not even the sight of two darts falling out of the treble 18 affecting his confidence as he came within a wire of going out in style with a 124 finish.

The Stoke man was allowed to come back to the oche, though, to seal a memorable first world title, and what could be the first of many more if he can reproduce this form on the big occasion.

" It hasn't quite sunk in yet," said Lewis after collecting the trophy and £200,000 first prize. "It takes a lot of bottle to keep your courage after hitting a nine-darter.

"I'm over the moon to win this but I've got to push on now. I think I deserve it, I went up there yesterday and felt a lot of pressure. I turned up today and felt cool and got the job done.

"I knew I had to come out strong against him. When I hit the two 180s, I thought this is going in. I've missed them all week on double 12 but I knew I wouldn't miss that one."