When Polly James was approached to start working in darts, she knew it was a no-brainer.

After her first visit to Ally Pally in 2009 - then as a punter - she was hooked on the sport which she can now call work.

A radio DJ by trade, hosting weekend afternoons on Radio X, Polly is now a recognisable face as well as voice after becoming one of Sky Sports’ key reporters on major events, alongside work with Ladbrokes at other majors.

For Polly, the appeal of the darts is the realness. “I think darts is one of the most charming sports in the world,” the Cardiff presenter says. “You’ve got grandma and grandpa sat together in the crowd, then you’ve got a group of 20-year-old lads. You don’t get that at any other sports.

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“I get asked quite often what I like most about the darts and you know what, it is something that you cannot explain too much. I grew up with it, I enjoyed it, I clicked with it and now I can’t ever see it not being in my life.

“My first time I went to Ally Pally was back in 2009. The first time I started working at the darts, it was one of those things where I didn’t know if I wanted to mix pleasure with work.

“I’m a radio DJ as my main job and then did some hosting and presenting on the side, then someone got in touch to see if I wanted to do the post-match interviews for the Premier League, back in 2019. I just thought I would love to do that and I would give it a shot and it went from there, then the following year I started working for Sky.

“For me as a person, I really like the rags to riches story in sport. I used to do athletics when I was younger and as a result, I really connected with those stories. I like to find out their reasons why these amazing people who were from down the road from me, their journeys and how they got to become world champion.

“The players are really down to earth. Some of them are obviously media-trained but darts is so charming.

“It has this loveable way about it and these are normal guys. We have to remember that about them, they are doing extraordinary things. They give up a load of time and sacrifice a lot for our entertainment, but they are normal guys with normal families and like a drink down the pub, it is just that they throw darts and they have become world champions.”

With her role, Polly has the privileged role of being the first person on stage to speak to a player after they win a match - whether they hear the question or not in front of the raucous Ally Pally crowd.

“It is so loud,” she says. “I had this chat with my boss the other day, but what I tend to do - a bit of behind the scenes thing for you here - I tend to get up on stage and I will really, really quickly tell them ‘ok, Rob Cross, I am literally going to say this to you, how did it feel to come through a big scrap like that’.

“I have only recently started doing that because it is so loud, so at least they can hear one question!

“We had that conversation with the boss and he said it doesn’t matter, it is just the atmosphere. It is so loud in Ally Pally, the atmosphere is crazy, so it doesn’t matter if they cannot hear you.

“You get that buzz as a person and as a sport reporter, you do think ‘don’t f** it up’. It is not about you, it’s all about them, but don’t f*** it up.

“I am a fan and a punter at that moment, so I am buzzing to speak to them at that moment to find out what is going through their head.

“I remember when I spoke to Littler after he beat Barney and that put him into the quarter-finals, and I remember that was a big moment. You are just as excited as a fan.”

Darts has boomed on a seismic scale in the past year after Littler’s emergence, but Polly has experienced one negative side to the increased viewership - mainly because of her unique rose tattoo on her neck.

“I do get a lot of crap about the neck tattoo,” she says. “More so now, but that is because there are more eyes on darts, but it goes over my head. Say what you like about my appearance, I do not give a… but please don’t criticise my work, because that really hits hard and that generally doesn’t happen.

“I get on with a lot of darts people, I am in such a privileged position to do what I do, but I don’t want to lose sight of what it is like to be a darts fan. I am on their side, I am not on the other side, so to speak. I just have an incredible role to play.”

Polly James was speaking at the Ladbrokes Players Championship Finals, where she attended as a brand ambassador for Ladbrokes.