When you think about the juggernauts of darts, the Netherlands, England and maybe even Australia come to mind, but Germany are making steps towards joining them among the world’s elite. Martin Schindler is one of the players fronting the charge for his nation as they try to compete with the big boys of the darting scene. Schindler, who is now 21, made his television debut while still in his teens, but in a sensational 18 months he has broken into the top 64 in Order of Merit and has started to challenge the likes of Michael van Gerwen. He starred alongside teenage prodigy Max Hopp in front of a raucous home crowd at the Eissporthalle in Frankfurt, as the pair competed at the 2018 World Cup of Darts. With a combined age of just 42, the German duo was the youngest pairing in the competition, but Schindler was happy with their performance. He said: “The World Cup of Darts is a great tournament and it’s such a pleasure to play with Max (Hopp) because we are great friends outside of darts. We are just happy to play up there on stage, it doesn’t matter how the game was going we tried to relax and play, making a quarter-final again was great.” German darts is on the up and much of the reason is down to the tremendous support for the sport in the country. More than 20,000 supporters packed themselves in Schalke 04’s Veltins Arena in late April for the German Darts Masters. A tournament where eight of their most promising homegrown talents had the chance to take on the PDC big hitters.