IT would be an astonishing feat for most people - the perfect 180 darts maximum.

And when you're registered blind and you're playing in a local pub league match, such an achievement seems impossible.

Yet that's exactly what Steve Geary scored with three throws from the oche, in front of stunned team mates at the Bishops Blaize pub in Romsey.

The 42-year-old patient support officer at the eye clinic at Southampton General Hospital cannot even see the board when he steps up to aim with the arrows.

He lost his eyesight when a virus attacked his optic nerve nearly 20 years ago and now has only slight peripheral vision.

Steve said: "I have a little bit of sight around the edges but the dartboard is too far away to see.

"After I throw my first dart someone tells me where it landed and I adjust from there.

"With this particular throw against a King's Somborne club, I heard I had scored a treble 20 so I just kept my aim in the same place and got another two.

"Everyone, including myself, was totally shocked that I scored a 180 and the whole place was cheering. I got so excited that I managed to lose the leg and the match."

Steve, of Mercer Way, Romsey, said he had only played a handful of games for his pub after joining the team in the Romsey Men's Darts League this season.

He said: "My job is advising partially-sighted and blind people, and it is great to be able to turn what happened to me all those years ago into something really positive.

"If other people in similar circumstances follow my example by doing something incredible, then that will be great."

His team captain Paul Lucus, also from Romsey, said: "We just couldn't believe it when he scored 180. The whole place just erupted.

"Everyone there was absolutely amazed."

As for his next feat, Steve hopes to get a hole-in-one in golf.