Christian Kist did not come to Lakeside in 2012 as a contender. He came through the International Play-Offs, a Dutch road worker ranked 74th in the BDO invitation table, and he left as world champion.
That fortnight is still the centre of his career, and it was built on nerve more than on reputation. In the semi-final he was one missed dart from going home. In the final he let a four-set lead shrink to one. Both times he held on.
Mariënberg, Vroomshoop and a Borrowed Nickname
Kist was born in Mariënberg on 21 April 1986 and is based in Vroomshoop, in Overijssel. He took up darts in 1998, worked as a road worker, and supports Ajax. None of that marked him out from dozens of Dutch players chasing points on the BDO circuit at the end of the 2000s.
The nickname did. Kist became “The Lipstick”, a name suggested by Bobby George for three reasons at once: his heavy scoring in the treble twenty, the red bed that players call the lipstick; his habit of opening his mouth as he threw; and a surname that sounds like “kissed”.
The Road to Frimley Green
The first sign of what was coming arrived at the 2011 Winmau World Masters, where he reached the last 16 and lost 3–2 to Tony West in a deciding leg after having five darts to win the match. The run earned him a wild card for the Zuiderduin Masters, and he was also runner-up at the 2011 Swiss Open. When the 2012 draw was made, Kist was unseeded. He had come through the International Play-Offs to reach the first round at all.
January 2012: One Dart From Going Out
The early rounds were close. He beat Jan Dekker 3–2 in the first round, Belgium’s Geert De Vos 4–2 in the second, and Alan Norris 5–1 in the quarter-finals.
The semi-final against Ted Hankey should have ended his run. Hankey, a two-time world champion, led 5–3 and had one dart at the bull to win the match 6–5. He missed it, Kist came back, and a qualifier was in the final.
His opponent was Tony O’Shea, a crowd favourite playing in his second Lakeside final. Kist led 4–2 at the interval and pulled away to 6–2. O’Shea then took three sets in a row. Kist won the next one to take the match 7–5, and became the first Dutchman and the first qualifier to lift the title since Jelle Klaasen in 2006. The full list of winners around him is on the BDO world champions page.
Two Short Defences and a Switch
Neither defence lasted long. In 2013 Kist lost in the first round to Robbie Green, and in 2014 he went out in the first round to James Wilson. Straight after that second defeat he announced he was moving to the Professional Darts Corporation and entered its Qualifying School.
He won a two-year tour card there in 2014, and the first PDC season went well. At the Grand Slam he finished second in his group behind Phil Taylor, then led Michael Smith 3–0 in the last 16 before losing 10–5. At the Players Championship Finals he missed one dart at the bull to beat Gary Anderson and lost 6–5 while averaging over 100.
PDC Years, Injuries and a Comeback
Kist made his PDC World Championship debut in 2015 and lost 3–1 to Klaasen, the last Dutchman to have won at Lakeside before him. In 2016 he beat Justin Pipe 3–0 before losing 4–1 to Dave Chisnall in the second round. That same year he reached his first PDC final, at a Players Championship event, where Michael van Gerwen beat him 6–1, and he made the quarter-finals of the Players Championship Finals.
The years that followed were harder. Kist lost his tour card at the end of 2019, and he has named injury problems, including arthritis and recurring gout in his fingers, elbows, knees and feet. He kept playing on the Challenge Tour, and at the 2024 World Championship drew a debutant called Luke Littler, who beat him 3–0 in the first round.
The same season brought him back. Kist won three Challenge Tour titles in 2024, finished third on its ranking and regained his tour card. At the 2025 World Championship he lost 3–1 to Madars Razma in the first round, having hit a nine-dart finish to win the opening set, which earned him £60,000. The only nine-darter ever thrown at the BDO championship belongs to Paul Lim; Kist’s came at the PDC’s championship, almost thirteen years after his Lakeside title.
