With the country still gripped by darts fever following 17-year-old Luke Littler's victory in the World Darts Championship last Friday, Echo reporter Alfie Lumb took on Weymouth YouTubers and Tik Tok darts' stars.

Littler became the youngest ever to win the competition, making him a household name in the process, propelling the sport to new levels.

“It’s fast paced, easy to follow, the players are true characters, it's accessible and anyone from the age of two to beyond 90 can pick up and play,” said dart enthusiast Dan McNamara, aka Darts Jesus, as he’s become known by fans of the YouTube channel, the Bullhitters.

The 30-year-old, along with his brother Bailey, lives in Littlemoor, and make up McDarts, who have 44.9k followers on Tik Tok, at the time of writing, through their quirky darts content which helps promote the sport.

I went to have a chat with them both, and took Bailey on in a game.

When I walked into their home, I was mesmerised by the memorabilia up along the walls including players' shirts, and the pair’s vast array of darts.

They are sponsored by major companies Winmau and Red Dragon following their early success in content creation along with help from dad, Danny, and had all their latest selections out on display.

Echo reporter Alfie Lumb (centre) with Bailey and Dan McNamara (Image: Alfie Lumb) Bailey, a 22-year-old former Poole Town football player who was forced to retire from the sport following a career ending injury in 2022, was sat next to a Christmas tree adorned in darts decorations.

He said: “I’ve been competitive all of my life, and when I broke my leg I was devastated but wanted to look into doing something else.

"I always played darts but took it more competitively, and then through the success of the (YouTube) channel, I recently took on current World Youth Champion, Gian Van Veen in our Beat the Pro feature, and former three-time World Champion, Michael Van Gerwen (MvG).”

Talking about how they went from playing in their living room to taking on MvG, Dan said: “We’ve always tried to be creative, Bailey had tried content creation before, but our Weird Darts really got us a good following. I would make some darts out of something obscure like a paper airplane or even a carrot once, and then Bailey would throw them.

Bullhitters with current World number 3 Michael Van Gerwen. From left: Dan Coates, Bailey McNamara, MvG, Ollie Howard and Dan McNamara (Image: Bullhitters) “We had people sending us some of the weird darts they made - it was amazing.

“From then we met up with other content creators, Ollie Howard of tbddarts and Dan Coates of DartsWithDC to form the Bullhitters.”

Darts has been at the forefront over the past 12 months with the emergence of 17-year-old darts sensation, Luke Littler - with more people getting involved in the sport than ever, known as the 'Littler effect'. It's been made even more popular since the Warrington-born lad was crowned world champion.

Bailey added: “With the Luke Littler effect, a lot of people have been coming in, younger than ever, to find darts content online and we got lucky that we started at the right time. We have been described as the Sidemen of Darts - which has been a fun tag.”

The pair, whose darts venue is the Park pub in the Park District, Weymouth, said they like to keep things local.

Dan said: “We are Welsh, we moved down to Dorset when I was 18 and Bailey was around 11. We are supported by Weymouth Signs, and Sherrins as well as Shirt Shack.”

Before we took to the oche, I asked the pair what’s next, following the success of 44.9k Tik Tok followers, and 17.2k YouTube followers.

They said that they were focused on making content at the world championships and that the pair added that they love their fan following, and make a note to reply to every comment.

With that, I challenged Bailey to a one-leg game from 501.

Alfie Lumb taking the first throw against Bailey McNamara (Image: Alfie Lumb) As I stepped up the oche, there was only one thing going through my mind; don’t hit a 26, don’t hit a 26 - one of the most feared darts scores of 5, 20 and 1. I hit a 24.

It was at this moment that Bailey casually revealed that he had come into this contest off the back of playing a great of the modern darts world and 2025 World Darts Championship runner-up, Michael Van Gerwen. No pressure there then.

Chasing the game, I was thinking I should have taken the team up on borrowing a set from their collection after all.

Bailey McNamara and Alfie Lumb at the oche (Image: Bullhitters) With Bailey more than a ton ahead, I had to harness my inner Eric Bristow to pull of a miracle. To the team’s surprise my grouping was on form and I managed a 65. Next a 60, bringing the score to a slightly more respectable 265 to 90. I said there must be some kind of magnet around the triple 20 at this point, as with all my might I just couldn’t score it.

Bailey McNamara playing against Echo reporter Alfie Lumb (Image: Alfie Lumb) Poor throws saw me 150 points behind. I said, no problem- that’s three bulls, easy. To which, Bailey said: “With that you’ll be a Bullhitter officially.”

Maybe it was the chance of having my name in the lights, or that when he said that I was already planning my darts nickname- but I really put in all my efforts for the first throw to hit the bull - I hit double 10.

Bailey spurred his chance to finish the game at 90 and 50, and I was thinking I was in with a shout here as I cut the scores to 197-26. Bailey went bust and I was hoping maybe it would be the most feared number for him at this point.

I stepped up to the oche, knowing I had to make a difference at 197-26, but Bailey said: “26 is my favourite finish” as I was releasing my dart. I laughed a little before fear rushed over me and my throw jarred. I scored four.

As I walked back, I asked “Really?” To which Bailey replied: “No,” before smirking. I said he should have had that score, before submitting to the fact that I was about to take the loss, throwing a 26 myself. The number was back again, taunting me now at this point.

Bailey went bust on his next throw, and with my last walk up the oche I gave it my all - and scored a measly 20. Bailey hit the double 13 - and won the game.

Though defeated, the boys let me have a go on some of Darts Jesus’ weird darts collection from their Tik Tok, that sees them craft darts from chopsticks to carrots.

Unfortunately there were no carrots whipped up for me, but I did get to try some Weird Darts used by Simon ‘the Wizard’ Whitlock, and MvG himself. First up was the paper airplane dart. Giving me advice, Bailey said: “Throw it like a plane, not a dart.”

Echo reporter Alfie Lumb trying out paper plane darts (Image: Alfie Lumb) Not heeding the advice well enough, it meagrely dropped to the floor as we erupted with laughter. My next throw saw me score a 10 which I was chuffed with, and the third to the side.

Next up, was the Chopsticks, trialled by Simon 'the Wizard' Whitlock on their YouTube channel. According to Dan, only a handful of people have even managed to get the chopsticks to stick.

The first of my throws saw the dart hit the light ring before rebounding back out and slapping onto the oche. My next two throws saw my hit the sideboard. I felt bad - but unlike my Mum telling me off for thwacking a dart in the kitchen door, the lads were cool.

Echo reporter Alfie Lumb trying out chopstick darts (Image: Alfie Lumb) Pretty humbling to know I was the stopping point between Michael Van Gerwen and the Players World Championships. Good game, Bailey- I look forward to that rematch.

Full score:

Alfie  Bailey

477  416

443  375

419  316

354  256

325  175

265  90

228  50

197  26

171  26

151  0