Image source, Karl Holden Image caption,

George, nine, and Jack Evans, 11, with their coach Karl Holden and grandfather Danny Rylance at St Helens Darts Shop, Merseyside.

By Emily Atkinson

BBC News

"Oh! He's on for a 180 now!" calls out coach Karl Holden as 11-year-old Jack Evans fires a dart, straight as a lance, at a board out of shot. "Oh no, 123. Maybe next time we speak, in five years, he'll get it."

"It's hand-eye co-ordination. You just watch that follow through out of the corner of your eye. It becomes repetitive - that's what all the top players do," he tells Jack - a rising talent at Karl's St Helens Darts Shop in Merseyside.

Karl is speaking to me on a video call from the back room of his beloved shop. Behind him is a wall plastered with hundreds of photos of the players he's coached over the years. Luke Littler, darts prodigy and St Helens alumnus, features 15 times.

Littler first stepped foot in the shop aged 11. "By the time he was 12, he was hitting 180s, nine-darters, and averaging 90. That's when I realised he was too good," Karl, who also coaches at the local academy, says.

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