The reason why it's called an 'oche' in darts may surprise fans

Ahead of the PDC World Darts Championship final, fans have just realised why the line that players stand behind when throwing is called the oche.

After weeks of exciting darts action, the final of the PDC World Darts Championship gets underway on Friday night as popular young sensation Luke Littler faces long-term rival Michael Van Gerwen.

Littler will hope that he can improve on his performance in last year's final, having lost out to world number one Luke Humphries, while Van Gerwen is chasing his fourth World Championship crown.

But ahead of the highly-anticipated clash, darts fans have finally figured out the origin of one of the sport's most popular terms, the oche.

The oche is the line that players are made to stand behind before throwing their darts to ensure that each player is the same distance away from the board and to prevent anyone from gaining an unfair advantage.

The term oche comes from France and means an “incision made to keep a record”.

In the 16 century, however, its meaning changed to "making a mark", and because of this, darts players have to stand behind a pre-arranged mark called the oche.

Ahead of Friday's final against Van Gerwen, Littler admitted that he was

“I think everyone is looking forward to it [the final] more than I am. Win seven sets, I’ll be happy,” Littler said after defeating Stephen Bunting in a semi-final on Thursday.

Luke Littler booked his place in the PDC World Championship final with a semi-final win over Stephen Bunting. (Image: Getty)

“I’ve gained loads of experience, Michael [Van Gerwen] has been in numerous finals. This is my second, I know where I went wrong last year, I’m sure I’ll fix it. It would mean everything, win seven sets and I’ll be over the moon."

Speaking to Sky Sports, Littler added: “If we both turn up like we did tonight, it [the final] is going to be really good. As soon as Luke Humphries went out, that’s what everyone was looking at.

"I just had to focus on my quarter-final and semi-final, and now I’ve done that I can focus on Michael.

“We all know he’s hunting for that world title but I’m hunting for my first.”