“It’s funny how things can drop for you sometimes,” says darts referee Huw Ware from the Romilly pub in Pontcanna, Cardiff, where he’s sharing his musings on what he calls a “crazy moment in time” in his life. The 31-year-old from Barry is speaking off the back of calling the world championships over Christmas, including the final between Luke Littler and Michael Van Gerwen, and in the next 24 hours he’s flying to Bahrain for the Masters tournament.

“My life has changed somewhat,” he laughs. “I’m just so grateful for it and I never take any of it for granted.” It’s a world away from Barry Rugby Club where schoolboy Huw, just 12 years old, called his first ever game of darts because he kept losing when he got on the oche. “That was it really. I was calling because it was winner stays on and I wasn’t on very much,” he recalls.

“One day a pretty complicated one went in. Treble 20, treble 19, treble 17, perhaps. And I called it like that [clicks his fingers]. I remember people turning around astonished I’d called it so fast and it gave me a bit of a buzz. I remember one of them going: ‘Oooooh.’ You don’t grow up thinking: ‘I want to be a darts ref.’ Of course you don’t. I wanted to be a player and at that point I did still want to be a player.”

A referee or caller can’t really prepare for a darts match. The aim is to stay calm, composed, and focused so when the time comes the call is quick and right. “We turn up an hour beforehand, walk on stage and ref the game, and then we come off,” Huw says, making it sound far easier than it actually is. To me, who scraped through my maths GCSE, this feels superhuman.

“Yeah, there is no robot telling me what to do or anything,” Huw laughs. “It’s weird because I’ve never been that good at maths and I was pretty poor at maths before I got into darts as a boy. My maths improved because of darts – not the other way around. I’m not brilliant at maths now. I can just add up quickly and I know the dartboard like the back of my hand. It’s hard to explain – I just know treble 19 is 57. I know what number the colours equate to. So adding up darts scores has become second nature. It just comes out of my mouth.”

Behind the theatre of the match is a three-person team: the referee and two markers. There is one marker for each player and they’re as impressive as the ref, Huw says. “They have to write down what I say even if it’s wrong. The referee’s word is gospel in darts. So if after the first darts of the leg I call 100 the marker will write down 100 in the left column and 401 in the right. As the referee my role is to add up the darts that have been scored and call it and the marker’s role is to subtract and then write how many is left if a player is on a finish. The markers are absolutely incredible and just as impressive because they’ll very, very rarely make a mistake.”

In the heat of the tournament is there room for 'pinch me' moments? “Yeah absolutely. All the time. I started watching darts when I was 11. I still remember the game: Phil Taylor and Dennis Priestley 2005 World Matchplay second round. I was hooked. That’s the thing about darts. You don’t need to know anything about it and quite quickly you’re addicted because it’s very easy viewing and it’s fun. I certainly got addicted and I bought a dartboard and darts and that was it. It’s actually really therapeutic.

“Dennis Priestley was always one of my favourites since that first match, and another favourite was John Part. I still love him. We have chats now and again and I’m thinking: ‘I’ve just spoken to John Part about my day. That was really cool.’ The weird thing about it was I started officiating players that I’d been watching as a boy on TV. Because I started so young these were all the same players that I’d idolised. And there I was telling them their score. Insane. It’s only now with this new generation coming through that I’m officiating players I wasn’t watching as a kid.”

At 17 Huw became one of the youngest to referee a professional game at the Wimborne World Masters in 2011 when he officiated the women’s final. “It’s something I fell into,” he says. “I was picked to play for the Wales youth team in Aberdeen in the 2011 European cup youth tournament. I felt I was close because I was one of four boys chosen to go but it’s at these tournaments where you really see the difference between people who are very likely to do very big things in the game and those that, to put it politely, might take a bit of time. I was certainly in the latter category. A few weeks after that tournament I was asked to referee at the world masters and then I had a decision to make. If I was going to take that route I was essentially giving up on being a professional player. But I knew where I was in comparison to others my age and I felt it was the wiser decision to become a referee. The opportunity may never have come again for me.”

He quickly realised there are only so many ways you can shout “180”. “It’s been said time and time again for decades now and just about every way of saying it has been said. And yet I do think part of being a good referee and a known referee is about being distinct so it’s tough. I think you can tell very quickly if a referee has got ‘it’ or not. It’s theatre isn’t it? I remember one of the old referees, Martin Fitzmaurice, who would always say he could tell very quickly whether someone ‘belongs up there’. As I walked off stage after my first professional match he was the first one I asked: ‘What did you think?’ And he said: ‘Brilliant.’ Coming from him that meant a lot.”

Like many in the world of professional darts Huw has ridden the crest of a wave in recent years as interest in the sport has soared. The final of the world championships was watched by 3.71m people while viewership has grown 39% year on year. This year Huw will officiate various Premier Leagues, European tours, Matchplays, and Grand Slams across the world before returning to the Ally Pally next Christmas.

“Darts has become bigger and bigger over the last 20 years,” Huw says. “I remember when the Premier League was coming from Sunderland Leisure Centre. Now it’s at the O2 Arena. This year there were 10,000 at the world championships every day all up singing. It was the loudest I’ve ever heard Ally Pally. It’s been a real pleasure to see as a fan more than anything. People are experiencing what I experienced as a kid. The noise was tremendous. Whereas it was a niche sport it feels like now it’s cool in a way it wasn’t before. It’s cool to be involved in darts now. That’s really brilliant and I’m grateful people want to talk to me. I’ve had so many calls for interviews over the last few days. It’s been a really crazy moment in time in my life and I must say I’ve really enjoyed it even though it’s been tiring.”

He more than most knows what it’s like not to feel “cool”. He admits he spent time as a teen feeling shunned by the sport in part due to his sexuality. He has since set up Out on the Oche – a group dedicated to furthering opportunities for LGBT+ people in darts.

“I never got into darts to be an advocate for LGBT+ equality,” he says. “But I’ve found myself in this position now and the best thing I can offer is visibility I think. I’m not going to say I dedicate my life 24/7 to making this world a better place for LGBT+ people – I don’t. But I hope that by being up there on that stage I’m showing people that the darts world and the sports world is not closed off to you if you’re LGBT+. It’s for you and the opportunities are there for you to go on and achieve.

“I think sometimes from the outside it’s easy to see stereotypes and believe as an LGBT+ person it’s not a sport for you. I have lots of friends on the playing side and the non-playing side and they’re straight and very masculine guys who might fit a certain stereotype. But they’re my good friends. As I sit here now I feel like I’m in a great place in the sport. I’ve not always felt like that. At the beginning there were some difficulties there which were tough for me – very much so. I didn’t feel understood or accepted. I didn’t really feel wanted and as if I belonged among these people. I very much feel I do belong now.

“Don’t get me wrong – there is still a way to go. In our group Out on the Oche people from all over Europe share their experiences and a lot of the things I’m reading on there are negative which is very sad. But we’re making progress. What people are telling me is: ‘Thank God a group like this exists because it’s a reminder that you’re not alone.' Everyone wants someone they can relate to.”