DOUBLE KOP
Darts hero Stephen Bunting reveals Liverpool star is huge fan and wore his shirt along with brothers and pals on stag do
He has shared his sympathy for a former world champion
STEPHEN BUNTING is dreaming of a Liverpool clean sweep next year — and hopes to show Mancunians what silverware looks like next month.
The Bullet heads into the third round, where he faces Latvia’s Madars Razma, with hopes of a deep run at the PDC World Darts Championship.
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Only four men - Dennis Priestley, Phil Taylor, John Part and Raymond van Barneveld - have managed to win world titles at PDC and BDO level.
That is the challenge bespectacled Bunting faces now, 11 years after he was King of Lakeside.
Should he succeed over the next ten days then the mad-keen Liverpool fan would love to show off the tungsten pot ahead of the Reds’ home game with deadly rivals Manchester United on Sunday January 5.
Especially as Arne Slot’s Premier League leaders are in contention for several trophies this campaign.
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Bunting, 39, said: “I’d love to do that again. I did that when I won the Lakeside trophy but at that time, I didn’t have a massive fanbase.
“I’m walking around the pitch, no one knew who I was, and they’re all singing: ‘There’s only one Phil Taylor’.
“If I win this title, everyone will know who I am — and I might even get a couple of people cheering for me. That’s a dream that I can only think about so early in the tournament.
“But yeah, that’ll sort of push me through and I’d love to be able to do that.
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“I’ll tell you what, to walk on with it against United, that’s a dream come true, isn’t it?
“Can you imagine what a world champions’ trophy looks like? I can imagine what the Man United fans would shout at me, though!
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“And I don’t think it’d be: ‘There’s only one Phil Taylor...’”
Bunting, who has a huge TikTok following, is good friends with Liverpool’s Irish goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher, who is the stand-in whenever No 1 Alisson is not around.
The No 8 seed said: “I sent him a set of darts and a shirt the other day. He contacted me about nine months ago.
“He wanted a video for his brother, who plays in the lower leagues, because he’s a big fan and they all went on a stag do in Bunting shirts.”
Bunting credits the turnaround in his career to embracing hypnotherapy — and winning the Masters last February was evidence of his changed mindset.
He has enormous sympathy for fellow St Helens thrower and No 2 seed Michael Smith, the highest seed to exit Ally Pally.
Smith, the PDC world champion only two years ago, was bundled out by Kevin Doets in the second round and faces a tough time to reignite his career.
Bunting said: “I probably won’t go see him but I’ll send him a message. He knows how good he is.
“He probably went home straight after the match. When you lose on that stage, it’s the worst place. And going into Christmas, he’s got a young family as well.
“It’s so difficult to go home then and have a great Christmas when you work so hard to get into worlds — and then it’s over in a blink of an eye.
“So I can totally understand his disappointment and, thankfully, it’s not me going home and having a bad Christmas.
“I totally feel for him. I think my hypnotherapist did reach out to him and his family probably last year.
“I don’t know what happened there but it didn’t happen. I’m really happy with my hypnotist. He’s doing fantastic for me.
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“Listen, there’s different things you do. Things like your diet, you look for energy when you’re playing.
“Each player is different, so I wouldn’t like to say to players, ‘this is what you need to do’, but listen, learn off the best.”
List of all-time Darts World Champions
BELOW is a list of Darts world champions by year.
The list does not include winners from the pre-Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) era or BDO world champions.
That means Raymond van Barneveld, for example, is only listed once - Barney also won four BDO titles - and none of Eric Bristow's five BDO titles are included.
- 1994 - Dennis Priestley
- 1995 - Phil Taylor
- 1996 - Phil Taylor (2)
- 1997 - Phil Taylor (3)
- 1998 - Phil Taylor (4)
- 1999 - Phil Taylor (5)
- 2000 - Phil Taylor (6)
- 2001 - Phil Taylor (7)
- 2002 - Phil Taylor (8)
- 2003 - John Part
- 2004 - Phil Taylor (9)
- 2005 - Phil Taylor (10)
- 2006 - Phil Taylor (11)
- 2007 - Raymond van Barneveld
- 2008 - John Part (2)
- 2009 - Phil Taylor (12)
- 2010 - Phil Taylor (13)
- 2011 - Adrian Lewis
- 2012 - Adrian Lewis (2)
- 2013 - Phil Taylor (14)
- 2014 - Michael van Gerwen
- 2015 - Gary Anderson
- 2016 - Gary Anderson (2)
- 2017 - Michael van Gerwen (2)
- 2018 - Rob Cross
- 2019 - Michael van Gerwen (3)
- 2020 - Peter Wright
- 2021 - Gerwyn Price
- 2022 - Peter Wright (2)
- 2023 - Michael Smith
- 2024 - Luke Humphries
Most World Titles
- 14 - Phil Taylor
- 3 - Michael van Gerwen
- 2 - John Part, Adrian Lewis, Gary Anderson, Peter Wright
- 1 - Dennis Priestley, Raymond van Barneveld, Rob Cross, Gerwyn Price, Michael Smith, Luke Humphries
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