Most people watch the games just because they love darts.”Here at the Circus Tavern, crunched in the most unprepossessing part of Essex, between the M25 and the Thames estuary, around 1,000 of these fanatics contribute to a pub atmosphere which is lively but never excessive.As we talk, the next two players up, 10-times world champion Phil Taylor and young challenger Wayne Mardle, wander in between practice sessions, sipping at (soft, it must be said) drinks with the insouciance of nightclubbers out on the casual pull. But for Taylor’s tattooed legend on his arm, “The Power”, and Mardle’s trademark Hawaiian shirt, they might be any amateurs in any local. Neither bear much similarity to the grossly overweight characters portrayed by Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones in a celebrated Not The Nine O’Clock News sketch when, clad like darts players, they competed against each other in downing huge quantities of alcohol.”There was that Geordie commentator’s voice screaming out: ‘And now Fatbelly needs a treble gin or a double martini’,” recalls Waddell “I fell about laughing It was sensational. But the BDO [the British Darts Organisation] didn’t like it at all. I was really sneered at when I said that not only had I wished that I’d done the voice but I wished I’d written the sketch.”He adds: “I think the BDO made a big mistake after that, in actually saying no fags and no booze on the oche It was because they were losing sponsors hand over fist But I thought it just sanitised the game. It was wrong to do that, although it was true that Jocky [Wilson] won seven of his titles when most humans couldn’t stand.”Now, the players are leaner, fitter. Taylor has apparently lost three stone in four months with a view to running in the London Marathon, Waddell confides, before continuing in mock amazement: “Anyway, they now drink chablis, would you believe.”In the early Nineties, the British Darts Corporation, a “democracy” of 17 professional players, broke away and started promoting tournaments on their own.

Sky took over TV coverage, and Waddell joined them two years later. “I think it’s back now as near as it’ll ever be to a major sport on Sky. I don’t think it will get back to the peak of 8.3 million who watched the 1983 Embassy final, but audiences are very healthy. It’s the second most-watched sport to football.”The BBC, meanwhile, have continued with coverage of the BDO tournament at Frimley Green “It doesn’t have the same calibre as this,” says Waddell. “I think it’s still regarded by the BBC as a little bit of a sop to the working classes.”With that, it’s back to the mike, to describe the Taylor v Mardle contest in this Ladbrokes-sponsored tournament, with a statement of intent. “I’m trying to make what is a cult sport a world sport, a mainline sport,” concludes Waddell. “At least I used to think that, but what Phil Taylor has done in the last few years has probably made me obsolete I’d be happy to retire I don’t know where Moses went when he retired.

I suppose I’d be sat in the wilderness for the first few years.”Biography: Sid WaddellBorn: 10 August 1940 in Alnwick.Family: Married to Irene, a TV producer, has five children and two grandchildren.Education: Was a history scholar at St John’s College, Cambridge.Sporting career: Ran the 100 yards for the North of England against Scotland and won 40 junior rugby caps for Northumberland.Also: Worked as a road manager for The Animals, wrote the 1980s children’s television football drama ‘Jossy’s Giants’.Sid on Sid: “I also bring my academic and intellectual ideas to the sport. Why not? Lord Byron was a mean billiards player and Camus played in goal for Algeria.”On darts: “Darts players are probably a lot fitter than most footballers in overall body strength.”. Exhibition Park was constructed, on the edge of Newcastle’s Town Moor, to mark the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria. The View From Great North Cross Country meeting held within its grounds yesterday was built around the appearance of the woman who became the queen of distance running in 2002. Sadly, Paula Radcliffe could not attend the first engagement of her post-coronation year. A bacterial infection kept the marathon world record holder away from the mud and snow of Tyneside. In her absence, it was the young man who would be king of the male distance running world who stole the new year show.