Out of the tube station and up the hill they file, drawn to the bright lights like moths to a warm flame. At the top of the hill, a snake of buses spits out convoys of German tourists. For the next three weeks London is the centre of the darting universe, and Alexandra Palace is its friendly local: a place of long tables and four-pint pitchers, of old songs and familiar faces.
More than anywhere else, London is where the soul of darts resides. It was in the Red Lion pub in Wandsworth in 1926 that the rules of the sport were first agreed and codified.
