Posted Feb 26th 2007, 2:52pm

Most watched television sports

What a fantastic testament to the heightened popularity of darts it is, to be named as the number two TV sport behind football, according to today's The Times.

An astonishing fact, though maybe one based in a false element of surprise.

Darts has come a long way since the cliched image of fat blokes in a pub.

Just look at the number of stars coming out of Holland, where the staple diet is arrows in a leisure centre, not in the boozer.

Add to that the huge appeal that has come out of the creation of the PDC, and no disrespect to the BBC, but left with the same BDO product they were never going to explore (and maybe exploit) the various angles that Sky have for major tournaments and Premier League fixtures.

Premier League darts is every bit as tense as parts of the BDO World Championships, and I can't help feeling that with another swarm of players heading to the PDC, the days of the BDO (in its current form at least) might be drawing to a close.

In the meantime, lets celebrate the fact that as a TV sport it's up there with the best.