TWIW: Van Veen grows from boy to man as darts continues to produce special moments and characters

Published by

Jack McRae

on

3rd Jan 2026

This week I watched darts. Yet the story begins ten years ago, when an awe-struck 13-year-old boy from the small Dutch village of Poederoijen watched his sporting hero, a 45-year-old former pub landlord from East Lothian, defend his world title and lift the biggest prize in darts.

At the time, Gian van Veen was one of the top youth prospects in the Netherlands and Gary Anderson was merely an icon on a screen. Now, Van Veen is ranked number three in the world and Anderson is the latest player to fall in the 23-year-old’s charge to tonight’s PDC World Darts Championship final against Luke Littler.

The Dutchman traded leg for leg with the Flying Scotsman as they blitzed through the opening sets in a thrilling semi-final. Van Veen wrestling back the fifth set from two down with a 170 checkout to set him on his way to a clinical and composed victory against a raucous atmosphere.

When I saw Van Veen see off Madars Razma in the third round, he made light work of his 4-1 victory over the Latvian in a match which epitomised much of his tournament. His compatriot Michael van Gerwen and Luke Humphries took the headlines on that night, but Van Veen would progress beyond both players with little fuss, little noise, little ego. Van Veen has coasted to the final and yet still appears amazed to be in a position of which his younger self could have only dreamed.

The lingering stench of sweat, body odour and Fosters pitchers from the afternoon session and the previous weeks of action hit me when I first entered the arena. The odours of everything that has been achieved in this great hall seeped into the very foundations of the building.

Sat on a table alongside the huddled corridor of 180 signs, bucket hats and foam fingers in which the players make their grand entrance, I felt the apprehension building as the masses pushed closer and closer to the metal walkway. The darts players held stoic faces as their names were announced before lighting up at the first beat of their walk-on songs – showtime.

*_{^{Michael van Gerwen is no longer the best ranked Dutchman. Photograph: Wikimedia Commons / Sandro Halank}}*

Anyone can play darts and anyone can watch it. It is easily understood and there is a magnetism about the personalities the sport produces. Even if you do not follow the sport closely in the 11 months that surround the World Championships, it is a spectacle and a night of entertainment.

The fancy dress costumes, the rotating chorus of chants and school hall-style lines of tables in the Alexandra Palace can make the actual sport secondary to the event. It is why someone like my 22-year-old sister, dressed up as Claudia Winkleman alongside six ‘Traitors’, can get into darts in the first place despite having little interest in it before.

Van Veen was an afterthought on that third-round card, but just a week later he is the last standing and could add the world title to his European crown won in October to cap a remarkable six-month evolution.

This is something so uniquely special about darts. Few other sports can have such a transformative effect on an individual’s life in such a short space of time where they are catapulted from obscurity to the highest stage in front of the biggest crowds.

No one understands this better than Van Veen’s opponent tonight, Littler. At 16, the youngster from Warrington tore his way to the final as an unseeded unknown. At 17, he lifted the title for the first time. At 18, he can become the first man since Anderson to win the World Championship back-to-back as a globally famous sporting sensation.

_{^{Few understand a meteoric rise better than Luke Littler. Photograph: Wikimedia Commons / Sandro Halank}}

There is an incredible accessibility to darts that helps produce these rapid ascents to greatness and allows individuals and characters from anywhere to become a figure of adoration for moments, months and careers.

Kenyan player David Munyua had never left Africa before he travelled to north London to face Mike de Decker. The 30-year-old is a full-time vet and only started playing darts in 2022 but shocked the sport by beating the world number 18 in the first round.

Munyua is one of many charismatic and joyous underdogs who have captured the magic at the Alexandra Palace and won over the fervent crowds. Whether it is Ricky Evans dancing with the cheerleaders, Mitsuhiko Tatsunami’s walk on or Wesley Plaisier’s shock victory over Gerwyn Price, any darts player can produce special moments.

Or, as in the case of Justin Hood, exceptional and deep runs into the tournament that can change an individual’s life in a matter of weeks. The 32-year-old had been working as a night porter just under two years ago. Now, following a record-breaking 4-0 victory over Josh Rock, he has pocketed over £100,000 in his brilliant swagger to the quarter-final in which he was beaten by 5-2 by Anderson. Asked what he would do with his earnings, Hood said he might open a Chinese takeaway.

Darts is still very male-dominated but, as its popularity continues to grow, that could begin to shift. Fallon Sherrock became the first woman to win a match at the tournament in 2020, but she has not been able to match her run to the third round since. But 21-year-old Beau Greaves has given plenty of proof that she could take her place amongst the upper echelons of the sport as she is one of a handful of players to have beaten Littler in the past year. She will have been disappointed to have lost to Daryl Gurney in the first round.

The challenge for the PDC will be translating the popularity of the winter tournament into the rest of the sporting calendar. Yet, by centring the players’ relatable personalities at the heart of the action and allowing fans to develop favourites and soft spots, darts can reach out to audiences that other sports won’t be able to touch.

Anyone could be watching Littler and Van Veen tonight. Anyone could pick up a set of darts tomorrow. If a teenager from Poederoijen can be so enchanted by a middle-aged Scottish man in 2016, the possibilities of who will take to the oche in 2036 appears endless. There is no sport quite like it.

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