It was not long ago that the 27-year-old from Bedlington was working through the night putting out traffic cones on Britain’s motorways.

And now this evening he will take to the oche at the William Hill World Darts Championship to play the greatest of them all – Phil Taylor.

And, should the World No38 defeat the 16-times world champion, he will go into sporting history as the last man ever to beat The Power who is competing in his final tournament.

One thing is for sure – six years ago Dobey’s number literally came up when the road to being a darts professional opened up for him.

Dobey said: “It’s a funny story. I was actually at the bingo with my mum when Nick, a friend of mine, came in.

“They were short of a player for the local darts league and he asked me if I would mind standing in.

“I had never, ever played but it turned out it was one of those natural things.

“I stepped in, carried on playing and might have lost once during the season. I played in a local club called The Ridge Farm. I was 21 and could not believe it.

“I progressed more than a lot of my friends and they kept saying ‘push yourself’, you need to go on to better things and I gave ‘Q school’ a crack.”

And qualify he did, winning his PDC tour card, quitting his job and now sitting in the top 40 of their Order of Merit having earned almost £104,000 in the past two years.

“It has been a massive pay rise compared to what I was on at work but you have to just focus on the game,” said Dobey, who will bank £11,000 for his first round appearance having progressed to the second round on his debut here last year.

“It is about the money but you still want the results at the end of the day. The money in darts is getting more and more but the standard is getting harder and harder to win that money. It is a lot of money. I have done well to get that far.”

An evening shift at the Ally Pally is rather different to his past life for Dobey, whose partner Evyn gave birth to their son Cole five months ago.

Dobey said: “I did work away for a lot of the time, in Scotland and stuff.

“We would do 12-hour shifts, say 6pm to 6am which you would do for a couple of weeks.

“It was messing with my darts too much. I just had to give in in the end to focus on my darts career.

“I used to do all different things in my job: I would work in the yard, make signs, put the signs out, sit on the closure point when roads are closed.

“People would give you grief (with the cones) but it was our job, we cannot do anything else. One of my friends got cans of pop, apple, or pot noddles thrown at him. It is a tough job and completely different to what I am doing now”

Tonight will be an occasion to remember for the man called...Hollywood.

“My nickname started off as a little joke,” said Dobey. “I used to come in wearing what I want for darts – shorts, a peak baseball cap, whatever I felt comfortable in. Someone shouted ‘Who do you think you are, some kind of Hollywood star?’. The name stuck.”

As will the name Chris Dobey if he switches off The Power.

***** Sky Sports has agreed a new seven-year broadcast deal until 2025 with the PDC that will take Sky’s coverage of the sport into a fourth decade.