Paul Lim

Paul Lim Leong Hwa (born 25 January 1954) is a Singaporean professional darts player. Nicknamed "the Singapore Slinger", Lim was the first player to hit a perfect nine-dart finish during the Embassy World Darts Championship, which he achieved in 1990 during his second round match against Jack McKenna. He was the runner-up at the 2024 WDF Lakeside World Championship.

Early life

Born in Singapore, Lim is the son of a wealthy jade merchant who had several wives, and he has over twenty siblings. He moved to England at the age of 20 after he had completed national service, where he attended culinary school. Lim began playing darts in the 1970s at a local pub while he was living in Chiswick. He returned to Singapore at 26 to work as a hotel chef, then moved to Papua New Guinea in 1982 to work at a Travelodge hotel.

Career

While in Papua New Guinea, Lim began to represent them in darts internationally, winning the 1980 World Darts Federation Pacific Cup singles title and defeating American Jerry Umberger. He hit a ten-dart finish during this tournament.

Lim became friends with Jerry Umberger, who he had defeated in the Pacific Cup, and Lim moved to San Bernardino, California in 1985 to play on the American darts circuit. He maintained a part-time job as a chef while playing darts on the weekends. Originally playing for the United States, Lim began playing for Singapore once they gained WDF status. In 1988, he was the number one darts player in the United States; he had ranked highest in 1987 but as he had not resided in the country long enough he was not eligible to be number one.

Lim made his World Championship debut in 1982, losing a first-round match to Dave Whitcombe. He failed to progress beyond the second round for the next seven years. In 1990, Lim achieved the first World Championship nine-dart finish against Jack McKenna in the second round on 9 January and won a bonus prize of £52,000. This was the second ever televised nine-dart finish in history, after John Lowe hit one against Keith Deller in 1984. It was the only year that Lim reached the quarter-finals of the event, and he lost again to Cliff Lazarenko.

In 1994, Lim decided to switch to the World Darts Council (now PDC) and made his debut at the 1994 World Matchplay. He never enjoyed any success in the PDC – he won only one match in the PDC World Championship, despite appearing in the tournament each year between 1997 and 2002.

Lim reached the last 16 of the Las Vegas Open in January 2007.

Lim made his first appearance in the World Championships for 11 years after being awarded a place in the 2013 PDC World Darts Championship, as a result of being the World Soft Tip Champion. He beat Mohd Latif Sapup in the preliminary round 4–1 to set up a first-round match against second favourite for the tournament Michael van Gerwen. Lim lost 3–0, despite hitting the tournament's first 170 finish as well as twelve scores of 140 or more during the match. Lim qualified for the 2014 World Championship via the International Qualifiers. He was drawn against Japan's Morihiro Hashimoto in the preliminary round and was beaten 4–2.

Lim made his debut in the 2014 World Cup of Darts as he represented Singapore with Harith Lim. They won five legs in a row in the opening round against Ireland to progress with a 5–3 win. In the second round Lim lost to South Africa's Devon Petersen, but Harith beat Graham Filby, resulting in a doubles match to settle the tie. Singapore were edged out 4–3, but never had a dart for the match.

Lim lost in the final of the 2015 French Dartslive event to Leonard Gates, but won the Soft Tip Qualifier for the 2016 World Championship for the second time by seeing off Boris Krčmar 4–2 in the final. He went on to play Aleksandr Oreshkin in the preliminary round and missed two match darts in a 2–1 set defeat. Lim and Harith made it to the second round of the 2016 World Cup, but lost their singles matches 4–2 to Austria's Mensur Suljović and Rowby-John Rodriguez. Lim won the Soft Tip Dartslive events in Taipei and Korea during the year.

In the first round of the 2017 World Cup Lim and Harith met the number one seeds of Scotland represented by Gary Anderson and Peter Wright. A 100 finish from Lim completed a huge 5–2 shock victory for Singapore and they then beat Spain 4–0 in a doubles match to make it through to the quarter-finals of the event for the first time. Lim lost 4–1 to Belgium's Kim Huybrechts (who averaged 121.97), but Harith defeated Ronny Huybrechts 4–2. Singapore's tournament was ended in the deciding doubles match as Belgium progressed 4–2.

In the 2018 PDC World Darts Championship, Lim defeated Kai Fan Leung, and number 30 seed Mark Webster to set up a second round clash with Gary Anderson. He lost the match 4-1 and also missed double 12 for a nine-dart finish. In the 2018 PDC World Cup of Darts, he again paired up with Harith, where they defeated New Zealand 5–3 to set up a second round clash with England. In the first round, Paul defeated world champion Rob Cross 4–2 with an average of 102.29. However, Harith lost his singles match to Dave Chisnall, meaning a doubles match was required which they lost 4–1.

Lim qualified for the 2019 PDC World Darts Championship by finishing 5th on the 2018 PDC Asian Tour. He lost to Ross Smith 3–1 in round 1.

After a successful 2019 Asian Tour, finishing 3rd, he qualified for the 2020 PDC World Darts Championship where he lost to Luke Woodhouse 3–0 in the first round.

Lim took part in the 2019 WDF World Cup representing Hong Kong instead of Singapore.

At the 2024 WDF World Darts Championship, Lim was the oldest player at the tournament. A 150/1 outsider to win, he defied the odds to make the final, ultimately losing to Shane McGuirk 6–3.

In popular culture

At 5'7, Lim was considered quite small to be a darts player; a 1980 ''Daily Mirror'' article commented on the height difference between him and fellow World Masters finalist Tom Taylor.

Lim was a guest on British television gameshow Bullseye in 1984.

Personal life

Lim is married to Janet, who is of English origin, and the couple have two sons. While living in San Bernardino, Lim worked as a chef, predominantly in French and Asian cuisines.

World Championship results

BDO

* 1982: First round (lost to Dave Whitcombe 0–2)
* 1983: Second round (lost to Cliff Lazarenko 1–3)
* 1984: First round (lost to Mike Gregory 0–2)
* 1985: First round (lost to Cliff Lazarenko 0–2)
* 1986: Second round (lost to Peter Locke 0–3)
* 1987: Second round (lost to Bob Anderson 1–3)
* 1988: Second round (lost to John Lowe 1–3)
* 1989: Second round (lost to John Lowe 2–3)
* 1990: Quarter-finals (lost to Cliff Lazarenko 0–4)
* 1991: First round (lost to Alan Warriner 0–3)
* 1992: Second round (lost to John Lowe 0–3)
* 1994: Second round (lost to John Part 0–3)

PDC

* 1997: Group-stage (lost to John Lowe 1–3 and Jamie Harvey 2–3)
* 1998: Group-stage (lost to Peter Evison 0–3 and John Part 1–3)
* 1999: First round (lost to John Lowe 0–3)
* 2000: First round (lost to Alan Warriner-Little 0–3)
* 2001: Second round (lost to Alan Warriner-Little 2–3)
* 2002: First round (lost to Dennis Smith 0–4)
* 2013: First round (lost to Michael van Gerwen 0–3)
* 2014: Preliminary round (lost to Morihiro Hashimoto 2–4)
* 2016: Preliminary round (lost to Aleksandr Oreshkin 1–2)
* 2018: Second round (lost to Gary Anderson 1–4)
* 2019: First round (lost to Ross Smith 1–3)
* 2020: First round (lost to Luke Woodhouse 0–3)
* 2021: Second round (lost to Dimitri Van den Bergh 0–3)
* 2022: First round (lost to Joe Murnan 2–3)

WSDT

* 2022: First round (lost to Dave Prins 1–3)

WDF

* 2024: Runner-up (lost to Shane McGuirk 3–6)

Career finals

WDF major finals: 5 (3 titles, 2 runner-up)

Career statistics

Performance timeline

BDO

PDC

WDF

WSDT

Notes

References

External links

*
Paul Lim profile

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lim, Paul
1954 births
Singaporean darts players
Singaporean sportspeople of Chinese descent
Living people
British Darts Organisation players
Professional Darts Corporation associate players
Darts players who have thrown televised nine-dart games
PDC World Cup of Darts Singaporean team