Darts fans all say same thing after 40-dart leg at Austrian Open with players baffled

fans were left scratching their heads in astonishment as Joe Cullen and Thibault Tricole played out a 40-dart leg at this weekend's European Tour event in Austria. Cullen, who is a former Masters winner, eventually won the leg, but not before several missed darts at double one.

Cullen was 4-1 up in a race to six heading into the fifth leg, when he'd left himself with a checkout of 32 to put him on the brink of the next round. However, after coming inside the wire in the 16 and eight beds, the Englishman was sent chasing around the board in search of double four instead.

His opponent, Tricole, had similar issues on the doubles, firstly missing tops, before skewing darts at double 10 and double five in the same visit. From that point on, chaos between the pair ensued, with Cullen and Tricole both ending up on double one.

With scenes that wouldn't have looked out of place in a pub league, neither arrowsmith was able to pin the elusive match-winning dart. It eventually arrived with what was Cullen's 40th dart of the leg.

Sarcastically celebrating the lengthy leg of darts, Cullen threw his arms to the air while standing still with an ironic, but somewhat relieved, smile on his face. Tricole would enact revenge on the world No.24 in the following leg to make it 5-2, but Cullen got over the line to progress into the next stage.

Unsurprisingly, it garnered plenty of reaction on social media, with @ryanNUFCmad1986 writing on X: Like watching two blokes in a pub trying to hit double 1 after 6 pints [laughing emoji]."

@j_garbe_ said: "Pure theatre, pure darts, PURE DARTS."

@ZeebraOnTour added: "Never been happier with my subscription. Absolute content [laughing emoji]."

Reacting to the farcical performance, Cullen said: "It was one of those normally when your stood behind you get a feeling the other guy will hit it. But I thought he has no chance of hitting it and I knew I had no chance either.

"At one point I said shall we flip a coin! I don't think I would have been as jovial if I was on the losing end of it. Who cares I won. The first five legs I thought I played quite well.

"The first leg was a bit iffy but after that I settled into the game. At any standard that just proves whether it be professional, pub darts or youth darts that leg is still in there for somebody."