The new world champion of darts is an electrician who decided to start playing a year ago

The sport of darts has never gained popularity in the U.S., but we love a good Cinderella story — and the World Darts Championships gave us one of the best ever on New Years Day. Meet Rob Cross, the new world champion.

Cross, a 27-year-old father of three and a former electrician, was a complete unknown in the world of darts. A pub player, he never started playing seriously until a year ago when he began competing in doubles, winning 7 pounds in his first tournament. Now he’s earned over 400,000 and is a world champion.

Cross calls himself “Voltage,” an ode to his former life as an electrician. The man he beat, darts legend Phil Taylor, was nicknamed “Power.” You can’t make this all up. Taylor was planning to retire following the 2017 World Championships, and the finals were supposed to be his swansong — and then he got completely obliterated by a guy who hadn’t played professional darts until a year a go. Sports are weird.

Cross didn’t just beat the greatest player in darts history, he obliterated him 7-2 on the brightest stage in the sport. Taylor had won 16 world championships, Cross had won 7 pounds for placing in a doubles tournament. The Electrician shut the Power off. This kind of thing just doesn’t happen. Sure, we talk about Cinderella teams or players that rise above their station and surprise us all for a moment frozen in time, but we don’t see the equivalent of LeBron James get beaten by a bricklayer who decided to learn basketball in 2016.

And look, sure, you’ll insert your jokes about it being darts and therefore not a real sport. You might even be inclined to say that anyone can throw a projectile at a board and succeed — with this unpredictable win serving as your catalyst, but if true we’d have seen something like this before. The world has never seen anything like Rob Cross’ win before.