On March 19, 2026, at the 3Arena in Dublin, Michael van Gerwen and Luke Littler each hit the highest checkout in darts in the same Premier League semi-final. The finish is 170, which a player takes out with two treble 20s and the bullseye.
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One leg, two players on 170
The BBC described Littler as renowned for hitting the finish, which players call the Big Fish. Yet he missed his first try at it in that match. In the same leg Van Gerwen also sat on 170, and he hit both treble 20s and the bull to go one leg from victory.
Littler answered with a 170 of his own and fought back to force a deciding leg. Van Gerwen, a three-time world champion, missed match darts along the way, and Littler took the game 6-5.
He then came from 5-0 down to beat Gerwyn Price 6-5 in the final and win the night. “I have no idea how I’ve done that,” Littler told Sky Sports afterwards.
The miss that settled a world quarter-final
The finish had already shaped a bigger match. At the PDC World Championship quarter-finals on January 1, 2026, Gian van Veen took out a 170 against Luke Humphries, the Guardian’s live coverage recorded.
Late in the match Humphries had his own chance at a 170 and missed the bull. Van Veen, left on 45, won the match on double 16. He beat Humphries 5-1 with a match average of 105.41 and hit 55% of his doubles.
Van Veen called it the biggest win of his career. It was his fifth straight victory over Humphries, three of them at major tournaments.
What a miss costs
In both matches, a player who missed a 170 watched the opponent take the leg. Humphries lost his on the bull, the last of the three darts.
