That time of year has come around again, with the PDC Darts World Championship set to take centre stage for most of the next three weeks.
It's going to be three weeks of the best darts players on the planet battling to lift the famous Sid Waddell Trophy at the Alexandra Palace - with many hundreds of 'Kolo, Yaya Toure' chants thrown in for good measure.
The tournament is the perfect opportunity for lesser-known players to become firm crowd favourites in the hope that they might produce a major shock against the likes of Gerwyn Price, Michael van Gerwen and reigning champion Michael Smith.
One of the seven players - the winner of the opening round one game takes on Smith in round two later on - stepping up to the oche this evening is Cameron Menzies, who won a two-year tour card in 2022 after being absent for several seasons.
Advert
The Scottish arrowsmith, who lives in Milton Keynes with fellow darts star and partner Fallon Sherrock - who faces Jermaine Wattimena in round one on Sunday - takes on Rusty-Jake Rodriguez in round one tonight.
Before that, though, there was the small matter of completing a shift at work as a plumber, which Menzies highlighted in a brilliant Twitter post.
While wearing his darts shirt and putting his thumb up to the camera, he wrote: "Plumbing at 11 darts at 8. Finished."
In a follow-up post, the 34-year-old showed that he was indeed working just hours before his first round match, captioning the post: "Working before the world's. What a joy."
Menzies will be ensuring that the shift doesn't cause him any problems on the oche this evening, having told The Sun in 2021: "I had issues with my hands at the Players Championship.
Advert
"It happens after I use certain power tools which vibrate. My hands were a bit numb-ish."
Menzies, who is a firm favourite among darts fans, reached the second round of last year's World Championship in what was his first appearance at the event.
He beat Brazilian dartist Diogo Portela in round one, before being defeated in straight sets by Vincent van der Voort in round two.
Menzies is currently ranked 54th in the PDC Order of the Merit having collected £87,000 in prize money over the past two seasons. The top 64 ranked players after the World Championship retain their tour cards for another two years.
Topics: Darts
Ryan Smart