IN the midst of his usual screechings about stacking darts and the moist cheese of King George, commentator Sid Waddell, while covering the PDC final on Sky, spotted Bobby George in the crowd.

George is a pundit on BBC's darts coverage and Waddell remarked how it was nice to see him come to "watch some real men play some real darts".

It was a comment that seemed a little bitter, considering that Sid's messiah and 12-time champion Phil Taylor was getting beaten by the most recent defector from the BBC, Raymond van Barneveld. But Sky, for all the razzmatazz and 'Da Da Da Da Daaaaahs', were at least treating darts like a proper sport. On the BBC this past week, the moments of surreality were threatening to become the most memorable.

Instead of celebrating the sport, the producers have begun to revel in its kitschness a little bit too much. Admittedly, this isn't the Booker, but highlights still deserve better than ABC's 'Poison Arrow' as a soundtrack. George now serves as pantomime dame, baring his golden jewellery while introducing the players with his deep growl. What was once amusing showmanship is becoming more than a little embarrassing. The whole atmosphere is relentlessly retro. From the reruns of Paul Lim's nine-dart finish in 1990 to the mercilessly drawn out footage of audience members clapping, singing and actually dancing to Status Quo's 'Rockin' All Over The World', all the tackiest boxes have been ticked.

Even the aspects they've got right have resembled the death of an empire.

Round-table bouts of nostalgia featuring Tony Greene, John Part, Bobby George and the other commentator were fine memory joggers but inherently backward looking, along the lines of, "Eeh, remember when Phil Taylor were here". During commentaries, there was a persistent stream of references to great matches of the past, most of which featured players who had now departed for the great big tournament on the Sky.

Greene doubted that the split had hurt darts. "People don't care who they're seeing, they just want to see great darts." A noble sentiment, but since Barneveld left, the BBC's main box office draw is Martin 'Wolfie' Adams (right), proud captain of England and notable for little other than resembling Gerry's good/evil twin. Wolfie may be a lot of things but he ain't a poster boy.

The BBC were desperately hoping that the victory of teenager Jelle Klaasen last year would mark the start of an influx of talented Dutch youngsters with their jazzy maths and their blubberless hides. But the great white hope failed as raging hot favourite Michael van Gerwen fell at the first, while Klaasen appears to have spent his time as world champion trading in his girlfriend and cultivating his cheekbones. Even if they had made the latter stages, this tournament now seems doomed to exist as merely the feeder club to the megabucks PDC. Van Gerwen probably won't even bother turning up next year.

And BBC can't even claim they're the people's choice now, you need the interactive red button to access almost all of the live play. Meanwhile, the terrestrial highlights have been relegated to a postmidnight slot by footage of England's one-day cricket's misadventures down under, which even the Aussies are getting a little embarrassed by at this stage.

So, the Lakeside World Championship is dead, over, done, a blast from the past. And yet - and yet. Friday saw a couple of games that made us love January again, if only for a few brief moments. In a topsy-turvy classic quarter-final, a young Dutchman that nobody saw coming, Niels de Ruiter, beat Gary Robson. It was one of those games that thrilled not only because of the skills involved but because of its constant exposure of the two things that make the sport such enthralling viewing:

frailty and resolve.

De Ruiter came back from 2-0 and 4-2 down to bring it to a deciding set. One spectacular leg saw De Ruiter hit two 180s before Robson nicked it with a 121 checkout. De Ruiter then started getting the upper hand before Robson twice came back in with last darts (one for the bull) before eventually capitulating. Breathless.

In the other quarter-final, a silverhaired 50-year-old from Durham who had been playing darts for 33 years and had been trying (and failing) to qualify for this tournament for 20, made it into the semi-finals after going four sets to one up and doing his best to lose it.

Yesterday he played De Ruiter, a lad less than half his age. You can't say a decline in quality doesn't produce some good stories.

While there's no doubt that BBC darts is on the way out, Sky's whizz bang for your buck still finds it hard to match the emotional pitch that the Lakeside tournament still somehow manages to hit.

Right in the double.