Holly Willoughby nailed a bullseye on her darts debut at famous BDO venue

Holly 'Hard to Beat' Willoughby was trained by darts icon Bobby George and ended up nailing a bullseye on her Lakeside Country Club debut – before leaving the show with an unwanted record.

The beloved television presenter and author took part in the 2006 series Showbiz Darts alongside the likes of Johnny 'The Saint' Vegas, Phil 'The Cat' Tufnell and Keith 'Cheggers' Chegwin among other famous faces.

Having been shown the ropes by George at his Colchester mansion, she was booked in to take on actor Michael Le Vell, former cavalry officer James Hewitt and ex-cricketer Tufnell for a round-robin tournament on the famous BDO stage.

Unfortunately for Holly, she lost in the single-leg format to all three of her opponents, but did manage to hit a bullseye in the middle of her defeat against Le Vell.

Le Vell would go on to beat Vegas, who was trained by the late great Andy Fordham, in the final, averaging 35.60 and 35.21 respectively.

The champion was then awarded the Showbiz Darts 2006 trophy, but the show didn't come back for a second series.

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Holly was the only contestant to lose all of their matches on the Lakeside stage, with the show broadcast on Challenge across the month of October in 2006.

Holly said after her efforts came up short. "I thought 'this is alright, I can do this' then it sort of went a bit wrong.

"I think I got a three. It's really nerve-wracking and I could see wobbly-darts syndrome coming in."

Adding when asked about her positives from the show: "You know, I'd have been more disappointed if I hadn't hit bullseye and won one game. The fact I got a bullseye, that was great."

And negatives: "I don't know really… not winning anything?"

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