Stephen "The Bullet" Bunting's love for darts was formed at a young age while watching his dad play at their local pub.
"I think I was about 12 or 13," he remembered. "Hood up, sneaking around, sitting at the back, being very quiet with a bag of crisps and a fizzy orange."
Nearly three decades later, and now a father himself, everything has gone full circle for Fazakerley's finest.
His elder son now watches him play... albeit in sold-out arenas across the country rather than in their local boozer.
"In darts, if it goes wrong there's only you that can change it," said the 41-year-old Bunting, who now lives in St Helens.

#darts #play #local #love

Tampa Bay Buccaneers spent much of the offseason searching for more depth at cornerback, and they found it by bringing back a familiar face. Former Buccaneers cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting is returning to Tampa Bay on the practice squad, with an opportunity to work his way onto the 53-man roster. The reunion comes after the Arizona Cardinals released the 29-year-old, who missed the entire 2025 season while recovering from a torn ACL.
For Tampa Bay, the move is about more than simply adding another body to the secondary. Zyon McCollum and Jacob Parrish enter the season as the projected starters on the outside, while Benjamin Morrison, Ayden Garnes and rookie Keionte Scott round out a young cornerback room. The Buccaneers kept only five corners on their initial 53man roster, making experienced depth one of the obvious areas that still needed to be addressed. Murphy-Bunting has 65 career starts and already knows Todd Bowles' defense from his first four seasons in Tampa Bay. He was also at his best during the Buccaneers' 2020 Super Bowl run, recording an interception in each of Tampa Bay's first three playoff games. His versatility could be just as important. Murphy-Bunting has experience playing both outside and in the slot, giving Bowles another option if injuries hit or one of Tampa Bay's younger corners struggles.
Scott has an opportunity to establish himself in the slot, while Morrison and Garnes are still trying to carve out consistent roles. There is still some uncertainty surrounding what Murphy-Bunting can provide after missing an entire season with a significant knee injury. At 29, Tampa Bay isn't necessarily getting the same player who helped the franchise win Super Bowl LV, but this time they don't need him to be. If Murphy-Bunting proves he is healthy, the Buccaneers now have an experienced corner who can step into multiple roles without having to learn Bowles' defense from scratch. For a secondary relying heavily on young players its insurance and it could make the competition at cornerback much more interesting as the regular season begins.
This article originally appeared on Bucs Wire: Sean Murphy-Bunting returns to Buccaneers

#tampa #bunting #bowles #sean

Over the past two seasons, Marvin Harrison Jr. has been a name that plenty of NFL fans have paid attention to. Naturally so, as the Arizona Cardinals selected him fourth overall in 2024. It is now the dawn of the 2026 season, and Harrison Jr. still hasn't proven why he was picked that high. He's dealt with injuries, which makes it tough to gain traction. Not only that, but he's also had multiple quarterbacks.
Harrison Jr. has shown flashes, but he has struggled to stay consistent. A player with that talent, though, is destined to break out at some point. Over training camp, he has looked fantastic, no matter who is throwing to him. He's finally starting to develop the confidence that he's been missing over the first couple of seasons of his career.
Marvin Harrison Jr. practice highlights for the timeline.
Did not see Trey Benson, Jeremiyah Love or Sean Murphy-Bunting during the open portion of practice.
The SMB absence is interesting. The other two not so much. pic.twitter.com/AsxmMEfI5q

#seasons #naturally #cardinals #trey

The Arizona Cardinals defense got a significant boost on Thursday, Aug. 20, with cornerback Garrett Williams activated off the physically unable to perform list.
Williams tore his Achilles in December and was initially targeting a midseason return. But over the course of the offseason, his progress evolved faster than the Cardinals had expected, enabling Thursday's move.
Head coach Mike LaFleur said that there is still a process to fully reintegrate Williams into practice participation. The Cardinals, though, have more than three weeks until their regular season opener against the Los Angeles Chargers on Sept. 13. It seems likely, then, that Williams will be ready to start in that game.
If that's the case, he will take over as the Cardinals' nickel cornerback, a role that has been filled by Sean Murphy-Bunting during training camp.
"Right now, the plan is to play him inside," LaFleur said. "... He does some really good stuff on the inside. Not that he can't on the outside, but that's where we'll start."

#lafleur #start #achilles

Two weeks of training camp are down and, gradually, the Arizona Cardinals are beginning to look like a fully formed version of themselves. Jacoby Brissett is back in the fold, as is Paris Johnson Jr. On defense, Josh Sweat and Garrett Williams are on the way toward returns.
Plus, the pads are on and preseason is here, with the Hall of Fame game on Thursday, Aug. 6 and a trip to face the Las Vegas Raiders seven days later. Experimentation, as Mike LaFleur says, is mostly in the rearview mirror. This portion of camp is about the Cardinals refining strengths.
So, here are five takeaways from the second week of training camp.
Remember the panic about Marvin Harrison Jr.'s (admittedly ugly) drops earlier in training camp? That feels like a relic of the past now.
Throughout training camp, he's consistently made easy work of cornerbacks like Denzel Burke and Sean Murphy-Bunting. He's even gotten the better of Will Johnson more often than not.

#camp #like #johnson #jacoby

When Jacoby Brissett returned to full practice reps earlier this week, following the conclusion of his contract negotiation saga, he immediately elevated the first-team offense. Head coach Mike LaFleur even acknowledged that practice on Friday, July 31 was the best that his group has looked since training camp began.
But two days later, Brissett and the Cardinals' offense took a step backward.
Most notably, Brissett finished the day with two interceptions. Both resulted from poor reads. On the first, he threw directly at cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting, who undercut an out route from Michael Wilson. On the second, he never saw linebacker Cody Simon gaining depth in the flat, where he stepped in front of Marvin Harrison Jr. on another out route.
With Brissett struggling, Harrison finished the day without a single catch on just one target. Wilson caught one ball on his two targets. The lone bright spot for the starting offense was Trey McBride, who caught all six of his targets, including a touchdown during red zone work.
The biggest silver lining, though, came from the backups. Carson Beck had his best day of training camp, with a few standout throws. On one, he layered a perfect pass over a linebacker to hit Simi Fehoko over the middle. On the very next play, he stepped through a muddled pocket to find Xavier Weaver for a touchdown. Later, he went back to Weaver on the goal line, with a well-placed ball where only Weaver could catch it.

#offense #first #training

2026 World Matchplay of Darts Day 4 second round Live results, scores, schedule & bracket: van Gerwen and van Duijvenbode meet in all-Dutch clash originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Dirk van Duijvenbode has upped his performance, as he found a couple of breaks of throw in the second session, allowing him to take a 6-4 lead overall over Michael van Gerwen.
The 2026 World Matchplay of Darts resumes on Tuesday, with four exciting matches to be held on Day 4 in Blackpool.
Luke Littler, Michael van Gerwen, Gary Anderson and Stephen Bunting are among the eight players competing for a spot in the quarterfinals on Day 4.
Here is the schedule and results from Day 4.

#sporting #results

2026 World Matchplay of Darts Day 4 second round Live results, scores, schedule & bracket originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The 2026 World Matchplay of Darts resumes on Tuesday, with four exciting matches to be held on Day 4 in Blackpool.
Luke Littler, Michael van Gerwen, Gary Anderson and Stephen Bunting are among the eight players competing for a spot in the quarterfinals on Day 4.
Here is the schedule and results from Day 4.
MORE: 2026 World Matchplay of Darts: Draw, schedule, prize money and format explained

#World #schedule

Diamondbacks News
E-Rod Leads Diamondbacks to Big Win Over Dodgers
Shohei Ohtani and Andy Pages went back-to-back in the first inning, getting the Dodgers out to a quick lead. But then, Eduardo Rodriguez found his mojo again and shut the Dodgers down for the rest of the night. The Arizona offense came to life and capitalized on numerous defensive miscues by the Dodgers. The victory brings Arizona back to .500 and is a win against a playoff caliber team.
Corbin Burnes Restarts Throwing Program
Corbin Burnes still hopes to return for the run-in.
Torey Lovullo Talks First Base after Pavin Smith DFA
Barring a series of unlikely events, the Pavin Smith era in Arizona is over. With the previous move that saw Carlos Santana also being hung with DFA, what is the plan for first base moving forward?
X-Rays on Waldschmidt's Hand Return Negative
Somebody get Waldy into a batting cage to reinforce in him the fundamentals of bunting – STAT.

The Rays tried their best to avoid a sweep at the hands of the Dodgers and a 1-5 road trip, but came up just a bit short this afternoon losing their fourth of four 1-run games on this west coast trip.
The team came into the contest on a 16-inning scoreless streak having last scored a run in the second inning of the opening game in this series, and for awhile, it looked as if that streak could get much longer. Through four innings, Shohei Ohtani held the offense at bay scattering two hits over four innings while lowering his ERA to 1.00 on the season. Ohtani came into the 5th inning with a two-run lead that could have been much worse after a leadoff walk to Mookie Betts led to the first run after a single by Alex Call. Call then easily stole second off the battery of Shane McClanahan and Hunter Feduccia, who then came around to score on a Alex Freeland single after a walk to Dalton Rushing. Tommy Edman would then walk, but Casey Legumina was able to strand the bases loaded by getting the National League’s RBI leader, Andy Pages, to line out softly to Taylor Walls.
The Rays came into the top of the 5th having not scored in 20 consecutive innings before finally showing some life offensively. Victor Mesa Jr. led the inning off with a walk before Feduccia lined a double deep to left center giving the Rays more runners in scoring position than they had in yesterday’s game. Walls drove in the first run with a sacrifice fly, followed up with consecutive singles by Yandy Diaz and Jonathan Aranda. Cedric Mullins then went on to hit what was scored an infield single which was aided by a slow initial reaction by Ohtani to cover the bag. The single gave Mullins at least one hit against all 30 major league teams over the course of his career. Junior Caminero drove in Diaz on a fielder’s choice that involved two athletic plays on both ends by Tommy Edman and Freeland to prevent things from getting worse. Yet another single in the inning, this time by Richie Palacios, gave the club a two-run lead before the rally was ended by Chandler Simpson bunting into the third out.
A leadoff walk to Freddie Freeman followed by consecutive well-aimed soft contact ***** by Betts and Miguel Rojas loaded the bases with ***** ody out. Garrett Cleavinger came in to relieve Legumina and walked Kyle Tucker in a nine-pitch at bat in which Tucker chased early, but then tightened up his zone and drew the walk after fouling off several close sweepers:
That run would miraculously be the only run of the inning as Cleavinger would go on to induce weak contact flyouts to both Alex Call and Dalton Rushing before overpowering UCF’s Alex Freeland weith three sliders much to the delight of USF alum Shane McClanahan.

Inside the Chicago White Sox, there are two wolves.
The first is the three true outcome wolf. The South Side Smashing Machine is currently fifth in team slugging, ninth in on-base percentage and fourth in strikeouts. The latter is frustrating at times, as evidenced when Ozzie Guillén’s frustrations boiled over with Colson Montgomery after Wednesday’s 8-0 win over the Twins. My apologies to Ozzie, but I reckon a few bad swings is a fair trade for a 33-30 record, especially when you allow for the second wolf.
Wolf Two is John McGraw’s scientific baseball of the Dead Ball Era — beanings, baserunning and bunts. This is personified by the guys like Sam Antonacci (major league leader with 13 HBPs), Luisangel Acuña (a speed demon, when he manages to get on base), and a group of guys I lovingly call the bunting gremlins: Tristan Peters, Derek Hill, Rikuu Nishida and Antonacci again. These men stand on the broad shoulders of the OG, Chase Meidroth.
This balance has put the White Sox in a unique position: The South Siders are on pace for 219 home runs and 47 sacrifice hits. This puts them within a shout of the first 200 home run/50 sacrifice hit season since the universal DH was established.
The **** ytics case against bunting is simple: Outs are a finite resource to a baseball team. You’re only guaranteed 27 of them. Don’t give any of them away on purpose, you idiot!

2026 Nordic Darts Masters Day 1 first round live results, scores, schedule & bracket: Bunting's ****** le defense ends after upset against Tingstrom originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Stephen Bunting had several chances to advance, but missed a total of 25 darts at the outer ring during the match, allowing Viktor Tingstrom the opportunity to steal the match and pull off a big upset.
The 2026 World Series of Darts resumes on Friday, with Day 1 of the 2026 Nordic Darts Masters.
The world's best players, including Luke Littler, Gerwyn Price, Luke Humphries and Michael van Gerwen, will take the stage, as eight exciting matches will be played.
On Day 1, each of the eight PDC representatives will play against one of the eight Nordic & Baltic qualifiers.

All the support to Sean Murphy-Bunting.

Regardless of what role a player has on the team or what they've achieved in the past, it's got to be horrible being sidelined especially for a full season #BirdGang