Wonderful Woody nails nine-darter in best year of his career

LETHAL Luke Woodhouse is savouring the best 12 months of his darting life after adding a special Dortmund nine-darter to a sizzling 2026 CV.

The 38-year-old lit the fuse on the Machineseeker European Championship with a perfect game in just the fourth leg of the entire tournament in the Westfalenhalle.

Woodhouse said prior to the match he felt "excited" about getting going at the big event and proved himself also relaxed and smooth from the outset as he dismissed dangerous Dirk van Duijvenbode.

Leading 2-1 with an early break in the bag, wonderful Woody crashed home the nine to send the German crowd wild barely before they had taken their seats for the eight-match session.

Woodhouse subsequently booked his last 16 slot with a bullseye finish for a 6-3 winning scoreline and savoured the immaculate leg as he explained: "It felt really good. I mean, I had a chance at the Worlds and that didn't go very well. I know it's a cliche, but the most important thing is a win, so I just tried to get myself nice and calm and crack on with the game.

"Look, for me, it was all about winning. Dirk's a very tricky opponent. To get the nine-darter, I didn't want to be one of those people that hit a nine-darter and loses the game, so getting a win was the most important thing."

Woodhouse had defeated van Duijvenbode in the semi-finals on his debut at the Euro Finals two years ago and the scenario was repeated in the first round of 2026.

Victorious on the Euro Tour for the first time at the Baltic Sea Darts Open in June less than a fortnight after winning his first PDC ranking tournament at Players Championship 18 in Leicester, Woodhouse has been rocketing up the rankings this term and said: "I'm feeling really good at the moment, I've had a very good year."

Asked if this could be his weekend, he added: "Fingers crossed, I hope so. There's so many good players about just now. I've had probably had the best 12 months of my life darts-wise, so, let's hope it is sort of my weekend, as such. Let's see what happens."