Dirk van Duijvenbode squeeze into the last 16 of the World Darts Championship (Picture: Getty Images)
Ross Smith and Dirk van Duijvenbode produced 31 180s during their World Darts Championship third round clash, a new record for a best-of-seven sets match.
That was only part of the amazing story as Van Duijvenbode came through the epic contest in a sudden death leg with the scores at 5-5 in legs in the seventh set.
Smith hit 19 180s in a memorable performance, but his doubles let him down at crucial times, missing five darts to win the match with the Dutchman only needing one to clinch victory.
However, both will go into the record books as 31 180s over that length of match beats the previous record of 29, set in the 4-3 win for Rob Cross over Michael Smith in the 2018 World Championship second round.
No player has ever hit more than 19 individual 180s in a best-of-seven set match either, so Smith can have that piece of history in defeat as well, sharing that accolade with Gary Anderson and Joe Cullen.
It will be little to console him after the painful defeat, though, after missing the final of his five match darts in the decider, having the darts in the crucial final leg.
Van Duijvenbode moves on to the last 16 where he takes on fellow Dutchman Michael van Gerwen for a place in the quarter-finals.
Despite the monstrous amount of maximums, Van Duijvenbode averaged 93.44, which is dwarfed by the 107.66 that MVG finished on in his 4-2 win over Mensur Suljovic on Wednesday night.
Dirk’s doubling was impressive against Smith, though, finishing on 40.4% compared to the Englishman’s 29.3%.
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An exhibition of scoring.
