Inside unglamorous side of darts where pros & bus drivers alike play in leisure centres to fuel World Championship dream

BELIEVE IT or not, there is more to darts than sozzled revellers dressed up as traffic cones or cartoon characters.

Turn on the TV these days and there is likely to be some form of oche action taking place somewhere on the planet.

The Players Championship event will be a lot quieter than the usual darts competitions

Darts stars are playing under completely different conditionsX/OfficialPDC

Darts events are a lot louder and livelier with vibrant fansPA

Top-class arrows thrown in packed arenas where thousands of darts fans are either boozing, burping, farting, chanting or whistling.

But the sport DOES exist away from the glare of the cameras and the sold-out arenas – and it is often found in nondescript leisure centres.

Between February and October, the 128 Tour Card holders will compete across 30 Players Championship events.

Two players, one board and one caller. And that is it.

No fans are allowed to attend – not even one man-and-his-dog gets a look in.

These floor tournaments are as far removed as possible from the main-stage drama we see regularly on our screens.

It is so lowkey that even Peter Wright, the sport’s most colourful man, does not bother to get his hair dyed in advance.

It is a chance for the lowly journeymen to take on and test the world’s best tungsten tossers – people like Michael van Gerwen or Luke Humphries.

This week, the events are being staged at the Robin Park tennis centre in Wigan.

A venue that was slammed on Monday by former world champion Gerwyn Price for being too cold and having “absolutely pathetic conditions”.

Elsewhere, events will be staged throughout the year in Leicester, Milton Keynes and Hildesheim, which is a town south of Hanover in Germany.

The prize money is not a lot compared to the riches on offer at Ally Pally but it is vital for ranking points on the PDC Order of Merit.

The points on offer give the lesser-known stars the chance to qualify for TV majors – more significantly the World Championship every Christmas.

It might seem glamorous when it comes to the big crowds of the Premier League but to get that far you have to do your hard yards on the floor.