‘Still excited’ – Lim, 71, the oldest flinger in town

Paul Lim is used to making history.

The 71-year-old’s first-round win over Sweden’s Jeffrey de Graaf made him the oldest player ever to win a match at the PDC World Championship.

His latest inclusion in darts’ record books came almost 36 years after he became the first player to hit a nine-dart finish at a World Championship.

Next up for Singapore’s Lim is a second-round meeting with world number two and 2024 world champion Luke Humphries on Monday.

Lim said he “never had any doubt” he would still be playing at this age, telling BBC Sport: “My passion for my darting career and the sport of darts itself – I’ve always enjoyed it.

“The passion makes me want to play, to practise and to commit to the level that I think I can actually even be better.

“Darts is not a sport where you need to be really strong. All you need is to basically be healthy. Longevity is something in darts that will be longer than a lot of other sports.”

Lim first played at a World Championship in 1982 and qualified for his first PDC World Championship since 2022 via the PDC’s Asian Tour.

He narrowly missed out on qualifying for last year’s PDC tournament but was invited to compete in the WDF version of the World Championship in December 2024. At the age of 70 – and at the same Lakeside venue where he hit his famous nine-darter in January 1990 – he ended as runner-up.

Asked if the expectations he puts on himself are different now, he said: “In the early part of my career, I felt I had everything to lose. Right now, all I want to do is show up and play good.

“If I win, I win. If I lose, so be it. It’s a no-lose situation. All I want is the opportunity to compete, show the world I can still compete and prove within myself that I still love the sport.”

Unless Lim causes some incredible shocks at Alexandra Palace over the next few days, he will forever be best known for completing a nine-dart finish against Jack McKenna at the 1990 BDO World Championship at Lakeside.

Lim earned £52,000 for his moment of perfection, meaning he took home more in prize money than that year’s champion Phil Taylor.

“The £52,000 never came into my head,” said Lim. “If I did think about it, I probably would have missed the last dart.

“I knew I was going to the nine-darter but the money was never in my head. My rhythm never changed, I never stopped and it turned out well.

“It was a great moment and a moment that changed my life.”

That prize money helped Lim start his own business – which prompted the question about what he would do if he won the top prize of £1m from this year’s World Championship.

“First and foremost I would look after my kids and I’d put it in a bank account for them and my granddaughters,” he said.

“I might keep some for myself but I don’t think I need £1m at my age.”

Mikuru Suzuki of Japan won the BDO women’s world title in 2019 and 2020 but there is yet to be a male world darts champion.

“Ten years ago, if I was on a street in Hong Kong and asked people if they knew anything about darts, probably two per cent would say they’d seen it,” said Lim.

“Now it’s different, you watch the representation of players from each country, like Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan. You ask anyone in Japan about darts, they know now.

“It’s becoming something where someone wants to be a good darts player, playing on a big stage for their country and for a championship.”

Will there one day be an Asian winner of the PDC World Championship?

“In the next decade, I think so,” said Lim. “I reckon it’s a matter of time.

“Once we can create, let’s say 10,000 talented players, out of those you’ll eventually find someone who’s going to be really good at it. I think it’s time.”

Lim met Englishman Humphries in the first round of the 2021 World Championship and, on that occasion, Lim was a 3-2 winner.

The odds of a repeat are unlikely, given Humphries – who is 41 years younger than Lim – has gone on to have a spell of nearly two years as world number one and won multiple major titles, including the world crown in January 2024.

“If anything, I’m thankful for Paul winning that game because it changed me as a player and it changed me as a person,” Humphries said after beating Ted Evetts in round one.

“Three months later, I’d lost about four stones and I was in a major final [at the 2021 UK Open]. It helped my career.”

On those comments, Lim said: “To come across a champion who is as humble as him – when he said that, it was really a compliment to me. I’ve got nothing ever bad to say about Luke.

“With every defeat or every win, there is a spark somewhere – you’ve got to find it to spark you in the right direction. I can’t say that loss made him a world champion, but maybe it created that spark within himself to look at something differently and it turned out well for him.

“He is definitely a different Luke Humphries. He was good then, now he is great. It’s an honour to hear him calling me a legend.”

When you are still playing a sport competitively at the age of 71, you will inevitably be asked how much longer you will keep playing for.

“I don’t know when but, if I ever wake up one day and say ‘oh, I’ve got to go and play darts again’, that’s when I’ll quit,” said Lim.

“But I know it’s not that way right now because days and weeks before a tournament is coming up, I get pumped and I’m excited.

“If I’m still excited about it, I won’t quit.”

And when the time comes, what will be Lim’s legacy?

“I want to be remembered as a person who loved darts and spent my whole life with darts,” he said.

“I want to be remembered as a player who enjoyed it so much that they spread it to other people. I never stop spreading darts to younger generations. Anyone who wants to talk to me about darts, I’m always willing to talk.

“I want to be remembered that way – as a very loveable darts player.”