In the electric underbelly of Berlin’s Uber Arena, where the air crackles with anticipation and the faint echo of thrown darts lingers like a promise, Stephen Bunting transformed a routine warm-up into the stuff of legend. It was Night 9 of the 2025 Betway Premier League Darts, and the 40-year-old Welshman—known to fans as “The Bullet” for his unerring precision—stood on the precipice of breakthrough. Eight nights into the season, Bunting had endured a barren run, his tally stubbornly stuck at zero points while rivals like Luke Humphries and Michael van Gerwen racked up victories. But on this crisp April evening, as the crowd buzzed for the quarter-finals, Sky Sports cameras captured a moment straight out of a darting fairy tale: Bunting unleashing a flawless nine-darter in the practice room, a perfect 501 checkout that rippled through 501 points in just nine darts. “Nailed perfection,” one onlooker marveled, as the footage later exploded across social media, turning a private ritual into public inspiration.
This wasn’t just any practice session; it was the calm before the storm, a sanctuary where pros like Bunting hone their craft away from the glare. Clad in his signature waistcoat, the St Helens native gripped his darts with the focus of a man who’d clawed his way back from obscurity. The sequence was poetry in motion: a trio of 100s on the treble 20 to start, followed by crisp trebles on 19 and 18, building inexorably toward the finish. Then, the bullseye double 12—a whisper of a dart that kissed the wire and stuck true. The room erupted in cheers from fellow players and crew, but Bunting? He just cracked a grin, wiping sweat from his brow. “It was written in the stars,” he later quipped to reporters, his Scouse accent thick with humility. Sky Sports, ever the eagle-eyed chronicler of the sport, seized the clip, broadcasting what they called a moment “they never normally get on camera.” In a league where every throw is scrutinized, this raw, unscripted brilliance offered a glimpse into the grind that fuels the glamour—the endless hours of shadowboxing against the board, the mental reps that turn pressure into poetry.
The timing couldn’t have been more serendipitous. Moments later, Bunting strode onto the oche for his opener against Nathan Aspinall, the world No. 3 and a fellow left-hander whose stocky power had terrorized the field. Bunting, seeded ninth for the Premier League after his breakout 2024—capped by a semi-final run at the World Championship and a surge to No. 5 in the world—carried the weight of expectation. His season had been a slow burn: flashes of brilliance in the UK Open, where he toppled Gary Anderson in a tie-break thriller, but inconsistency dogged him, from early exits in Rotterdam to a heartbreaking 6-5 semi-final loss to Humphries in Aberdeen. “I’ve been putting in a lot of work behind the scenes,” Bunting confessed in a post-match huddle with Sky Sports’ Mark Webster. “To be honest, after the first win, I was just so relieved to get off zero points.” That relief manifested in a clinical 6-2 demolition of Aspinall, his three-dart average soaring to 103.4—a blistering pace that included checkouts of 112 and 98, leaving the Mancunian stunned.
But Bunting’s night was far from over; it was just igniting. In the semis, he faced world No. 1 Luke Humphries, the reigning champion whose metronomic scoring had netted him 28 points already. The matchup evoked the ghosts of their World Grand Prix clash, where Bunting had pushed the Englishman to the brink. This time, though, The Bullet was locked in. He stormed to a 6-2 victory, his arrows finding the treble bed with surgical strike after strike—15 maximums in total, a checkout percentage hovering at 45%. Humphries, gracious in defeat, could only nod in admiration as Bunting’s walk-on anthem, David Guetta’s “Titanium,” blared to a roaring Berlin crowd. The final against Gerwyn Price was a Welsh civil war, pitting Bunting’s finesse against the Iceman’s raw aggression. Price, no stranger to Premier League triumphs with his 2022 nightly win, came out swinging, but Bunting’s composure held. He wrapped it 6-3, sealing five points with a 104 average and a parade of checkouts that left the arena in awe. “I feared a zero-points finish,” Bunting admitted later, his voice cracking with emotion. “But once that first leg went in, it was like the practice room magic carried over.”
Sky Sports’ broadcast of the nine-darter wasn’t mere serendipity; it humanized a sport often reduced to stats and showdowns. As commentator Wayne Mardle put it during the coverage, “If I were Stephen, you’ve just got to relax… I’m sure once he gets that first win and gets that winning feeling, he’ll go on. I think he could win a night.” Mardle’s prophecy rang true, and the clip—shared with the caption “Written in the stars? Stephen Bunting hit a NINE-DARTER in practice before picking up his Premier League win in Berlin!”—amassed millions of views, propelling Bunting’s social media following into overdrive. From TikTok memes to X threads debating “practice perfection,” it underscored darts’ viral allure, blending old-school pub grit with modern spectacle. Bunting, once a journeyman who’d battled depression and demotion in 2018, has reinvented himself: the family man who sings “Titanium” to pump up crowds, the underdog who’s now eyeing playoffs at London’s O2 on May 29.
This Berlin masterclass ripples beyond one night. With 15 points now in the bag, Bunting vaults into contention, his path cleared for clashes with Luke Littler in Liverpool or Michael Smith in Manchester. His form echoes a broader resurgence: a 2024 that saw him claim the Masters and reach world No. 4, fueled by a renewed hunger after near-retirement whispers. Off the board, he’s the doting dad sharing father-son dart sessions, the Scouser whose humor disarms interviewers. “The will to win has never been stronger,” he told the Love the Darts podcast ahead of his emotional Liverpool return. Yet, it’s moments like the practice room nine-darter that remind us: heroes aren’t born on stage; they’re forged in the shadows, one arrow at a time.
As the Premier League hurtles toward its climax, Bunting’s story is a beacon for every aspiring thrower—the proof that perfection isn’t luck, but labor unveiled. In a season of prodigies and powerhouses, The Bullet’s Berlin bullet pierced the noise, proving that sometimes, the best shots are the ones no one sees coming.
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