Archie Self is still three weeks short of the age at which he could legally sit behind the wheel of a car in Britain. On Wednesday evening he was already in the record books.
The 16-year-old opened his Champions Week leg against Danny Ayres with 180, followed it with another 180, and finished on treble 20, treble 19, double 12 for the 141. The televised nine-darter made him the youngest player ever to achieve the feat on a live broadcast, as Sportbible put it.
The previous holder was Luke Littler, who hit his own televised nine-darter in a 6-3 quarter-final win over Nathan Aspinall at the Bahrain Darts Masters in January 2024, two days before his 17th birthday. Self took it from him by around three weeks.
The commentary gave up any pretence of neutrality. Paul Nicholson, on the microphone as the ninth dart landed, told viewers: “He’s doing things that even Littler didn’t. Ludicrous.”
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A fellow voice in the booth reached for the moment as well.
“Yes, young man, it’s nine, it’s the nine. He’s done everything else this week but he brings home the nine-darter in Champions Week. What a player, what a shot.”
The Archer’s compressed 2026
Self is from Thatcham in Berkshire. The nickname “The Archer” has followed him through the Junior Darts Corporation circuit, where he spent the first half of the decade building toward a senior move.
His 2026 reads like a diary written in fast-forward. According to Sportbible, he made his PDC Players Championship debut in August, picked up his first ProTour win over Pero Ljubic in September with a 98-plus average, and took his maiden PDC Development Tour title in October with a 5-2 victory over Sam Jackson in the final of Event 22, averaging 91.64.
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The youth pedigree underwrites all of that. He was crowned WDF World Boys Youth Champion in 2024.
Nine-darter had been threatening for weeks
The Champions Week leg did not come from nowhere. Self had been grazing the perfect finish for two weeks of MODUS play before it finally dropped, dartsnews.com reported.
The group stage had already gone his way. In a razor-thin Group A finish reported by Dartsworld, Self edged Jack Aldridge by leg difference to take top spot and direct passage to the Finals.
He enters that Finals Night ninth on the PDC Development Tour’s order of merit and fifth on the Challenge Tour.
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