Wednesday 27 April 2016 17:28, UK
After Paul Gascoigne's appearance at the Premier League, Rod Studd recalls how other stars from showbiz, sport, and even British royalty have enjoyed the darts.
The former England international footballer watched last week's Premier League matches in Bournemouth and the eight remaining players return to action in Birmingham on Thursday night, live on Sky Sports.
Gascoigne was the latest famous face to spend an evening at the darts and Sky Sports expert Studd looks back at when a prince, a TV comedian, and a Dutch football ace paid a visit to the arrows...
'From spit and saw dust to champagne and star dust' was how Dave Lanning, the former Sky Sports commentator, described the influence of our late, great colleague Sid Waddell. That is reflected in the variety of celebrities from all over the planet that watch darts.
Prince Harry is a great supporter of darts and has twice visited the World Championship at Ally Pally. I think everyone was absolutely staggered when he first turned up in 2011. A real live Prince wanted to watch darts, it just felt remarkable. He's a pretty down-to-earth character and everyone really enjoyed him being there.
I think Adrian Lewis got pretty carried away when Prince Harry went backstage to congratulate him on his semi-final win and ended up planting a kiss on his forehead. It was all taken in good humour and I think Harry enjoyed it.
Zara Phillips has also been to watch the darts on a number of occasions with husband Mike Tindall. It's now the sport of princes and princesses.
I think Adrian Lewis got pretty carried away when Prince Harry went to congratulate him and ended up planting a kiss on his forehead.
Stephen Fry is another example of how you can find all walks of life at the darts. He's one of the most intelligent men in the country, a Cambridge University graduate, and loves the sport.
We invited him to the Premier League finals in 2010 when the lights famously went out, forcing the matches to be postponed until the following evening. Fry cancelled an evening with Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, to watch the Premier League and treat us to his commentary.
Pop stars are also pretty keen on the darts. Last year we had some bloke from One Direction and Justin Hawkins, the lead singer from The Darkness, made the trip when he was trying to get the Christmas No 1.
Darts had struggled for many years to get respect as a sport, but now a procession of professional sports people come to watch and are in awe of the skill level and competitiveness at the top level.
International footballers such as Robin van Persie, Tony Kroos, a World Cup winner with Germany, and Rafael van der Vaart, who obviously did not know much about darts as he asked for a photo with Wayne Mardle, have also attended.
But it's not just football as champion jockey AP McCoy, snooker stars such as Ronnie O'Sullivan and Carl Froch, the former boxing world champion, all also come to watch. It just shows the respect that the greatest in their profession have for the darts guys.
Watch all of the Premier League Darts matches this Thursday night, from 7pm on Sky Sports 1.
