The eight celebrities were split into two groups of four, each captained by top darts professionals Andy Fordham and Bobby George who trained their respective teams in preparation for the event. The darts professional trained their team members at very different venues: Andy trained his team at "The Rose", a Dartford pub that he runs with his wife, while Bobby trained his at his mansion, George Hall, near Colchester.
The four players from Fordham's group competed against each other in a round-robin format and the four players from George's group did the same. The matches consisted of one-leg where the first to reach exactly 501 wins two points. In the event that no player checked out in the time allocated for the match, then the winner was the player who achieved the highest score with 3 darts in a sudden-death shootout.
These points were recorded in each team's league table and the top two contenders in each group will then progress to the semi-finals and then the final, where the champion was awarded the Showbiz Darts 2006 trophy.
Results and Broadcast Dates
Andy Fordham's Group
2 October: Rowland Rivron beat Johnny Vegas in sudden-death shootout
4 October: Keith Chegwin beat Vicki Butler-Henderson (winning dart double 7)
6 October: Vicki Butler-Henderson beat Rowland Rivron (winning dart double 6)
10 October: Johnny Vegas beat Keith Chegwin (checkout 32 – single 16, double 8)
12 October: Keith Chegwin beat Rowland Rivron (winning dart double 2)
16 October: Johnny Vegas beat Vicki Butler-Henderson (checkout 47 – single 15, double 16)
Vegas plays Chegwin in semi-final
Bobby George's Group
3 October: James Hewitt beat Phil Tufnell (winning dart double 1)
5 October: Michael Le Vell beat Holly Willoughby (winning dart double 17)
9 October: Michael Le Vell beat Phil Tufnell (winning dart double 1)
11 October: James Hewitt beat Holly Willoughby (winning dart double 1)
13 October: Phil Tufnell beat Holly Willoughby (winning dart double 4)
17 October: Michael Le Vell beat James Hewitt (checkout 23 – single 15, double 4)
Hewitt plays Le Vell in semi-final
Semi Finals
18 October Johnny Vegas beat Keith Chegwin (winning dart double 4)
19 October Michael Le Vell beat James Hewitt (winning dart double 1)
Final
20 October Michael Le Vell (Bobby George's Group)beat Johnny Vegas (Andy Fordham's Group) by 2 legs to 1.
Vegas won the first leg in 47 darts (on double 8), Le Vell the second in 53 (on double 7) and the last in 28 (on double 16).
Three Dart Averages Le Vell 35.60 Vegas 35.21
- Phil Tufnell hit 120, the highest 3-dart score of the tournament, during his defeat to Michael Le Vell broadcast on 9 October. Tufnell also managed the best leg of the group phase, with a 34 darter (average 44.21) against Holly Willoughby in his last group match. Despite these two statistics, he failed to qualify for the semi-finals.
- The highest checkout was achieved by Johnny Vegas who finished with 47 (single 15, double 16 and a dart to spare) in his last group game on 16 October.
- Holly Willoughby was the only player who failed to win a single match in the competition, Michael Le Vell managed to win all five of his matches en route to the title.
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