Stephen Bunting does not look like a showman. Soft-spoken, polite and unmistakably Liverpudlian, he could pass for the dad next door.

But when the spotlight is cast upon him, he becomes ‘The Bullet’, a cult hero whose walk-on sends crowds ‘Bunting mental’, and whose rise to prominence has turned him into one of the most loved figures on the darts circuit.

Bunting, the world No4, is preparing for the culmination of the darting calendar, the World Darts Championship , which begins on December 11 and runs through until January 3.

It has been quite the year for the 40-year-old, who has claimed six titles in the past 12 months, shooting up the PDC rankings to ruffle the feathers of the mighty Luke Littler , Luke Humphries and Michael van Gerwen.

Those six trophies are accompanied by

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