Oozing charisma, charm and the elocution skills of a professional university lecturer, Devon Petersen is the kind of guy who simply brightens up a darting room the moment he walks into one.

With his finely trimmed beard, which must take him half the morning to perfect, think of Devon as a South African Tom Jones – minus the soulful singing voice and a few fewer ladies’ knickers thrown at him. That said, I am sure he has tales of that. But they are for another day.

The African forefather of the sport and ultimate showman has spent years entertaining crowds around the world with his infectious personality, trademark dancing and boundless enthusiasm. While some dartists approach interviews with all the excitement of an income tax demand, Devon has always been one of the game’s great communicators.

Yet beneath the dancing and the smiles remains a serious darts player. One who made history as his continent’s first professional, one who lit up the Alexandra Palace stage and introduced a brand-new choreographed dance move purely based on strange arm movements.

All that said, the African Warrior – at still just 40 years old – very much still harbours ambitions of returning to the very top level of the sport. Naturally, I had to ask him about it.

How close do you believe you’re away from a return to the PDC circuit?

“I feel like my mind believes that a few months of hard work would do the trick. Now, with the IDSL Coaching App, I can track performance and know exactly my level. It’s always been in me to believe, but that alone won’t get you over the line.

“I’m going to push harder than before, as now all projects are launched and just admin things need to be ticked off. I would love to return to just give it one good go.”

That desire has clearly never disappeared. The beard has never really altered. The dance thingy with his hands is still there.

But above all, the appetite to compete remains there, and so too does the belief. Whether a comeback ultimately materialises remains to be seen, but it is certainly not something Devon has ruled out.

The game, however, has changed considerably since his days on tour. So what are the biggest differences he has noticed?

“The quality on tour has improved and it could be due to the scheduling and playing so much, plus the maturing of most players as well. Many of them have been on the tour for a while and you can’t put a price on experience. Due to the changing of the guard, it seems like there’s more licence to dream than there was before.”

It’s a fair observation. These days the standard on the PDC circuit is frightening. There was a time when averaging 95 made you look like a world beater. Now it merely prevents your opponent from checking their hotel booking during the match.

That naturally led me to wonder what changes Devon would make if, by some bizarre administrative accident, he found himself in charge of the PDC.

“It’s the automatic seeding in tournaments now. I feel it is not needed. The players are all good and could make decent runs in any tournament.

“Split the field into two halves and then have an open draw. World Cup – all teams into the draw.”

One suspects an entirely open draw would create approximately far more cardiac arrests among the sport’s elite every time tournament brackets were announced. Yet, it seems fair. We know Ireland’s Willie O’Connor isn’t fond of seeds. And he wasn’t referring to grapes.

From there, our conversation moved onto African darts.

The absence of Uganda from the recent World Cup was one of the sport’s most disappointing stories. Set to make their debut on the international stage, the German authorities had different ideas. But perhaps it saved them hours of being detained and questioned whilst, unbeknown to the duo, their luggage was heading to Peru.

Given the significance of the event, I asked Devon whether he had spoken to the Ugandan players afterwards and why the necessary paperwork had not been secured in time:

“The reality is this isn’t as simple as that. I will say that it was a learning experience for both ADG, PDC and all other African countries moving forward. Measures have been put in place to hopefully never see this repeated again.”

It’s perhaps a reminder that international sport often involves considerably more than simply booking flights and turning up with a set of darts. There’s the whole Russian roulette when it comes to suitcases we just mentioned.

So how much of a setback was the situation for aspiring African players hoping to follow in Devon’s footsteps?

“Not a setback, but just a bit of a disappointment and the potential of making history. The great thing is we had the opportunity and more players now will want to be part of the 2027 World Cup.”

If anything, Devon appears to view the situation as motivation rather than discouragement. Which brings us neatly to the wider picture.

To date, Cape Town born arrow-smith remains the only player from the African continent to achieve professional status. Something he fondly reminds random strangers of when doing his weekly shop in Asda. I asked how much of that was down to ability, opportunity, politics, finance and desire.

In fact, Devon’s own confidence in African darts remains obvious:

“Ability: we have plenty. Opportunity: we have improved the level of events. Politics: plays a big role, but players have the last say on their career.

“Finance: our biggest challenge, as the sport isn’t as popular and economically the situation is that most African countries don’t have access to top-tier equipment. We are changing that.

“Desire: everyone wants it more now that the pathway is ADG and identified as the only professional pathway.”

Perhaps finance remains the biggest challenge of all.

Players in Europe regularly complain about travel costs, hotel prices and entry fees. Fair enough. Have you seen the cost of a sandwich at a darts venue lately? Some of them require a small mortgage and a willingness to sacrifice your first-born child. I’ve seen less financial scrutiny involved in purchasing a semi-detached house.

Yet many African players are battling those same obstacles while also facing equipment shortages, fewer opportunities and logistical hurdles that would make an Amazon delivery driver quietly burst into tears. Some of them probably have.

What comes across most strongly when speaking to Devon, though, is not frustration but optimism. Which is fortunate, because if anybody has earned the right to spend an afternoon angrily shouting at a wall, it’s probably him. Most people would have spent years complaining. Some would have written a book. Others would have launched a 17-part YouTube conspiracy documentary narrated from the front seat of a Vauxhall Corsa.

He genuinely believes African darts is moving in the right direction. He believes opportunities are improving. He believes the pathway now exists. Most importantly, he believes there are players capable of following him onto the professional stage.

And why wouldn’t there be?

The continent contains well over a billion people. The odds of Devon Petersen being the only talented dart player Africa ever produces are roughly the same as Michael van Gerwen deciding, instead of throwing darts for a living, he quite fancies a relaxing early retirement knitting orange cardigans.

Whether Devon Petersen himself returns to the PDC remains a story yet to be written. Personally, I’d quite like to see it happen. The sport has gained plenty of brilliant players over recent years, but precious few who can make a crowd smile before a dart has even been thrown.

One thing is certain. Darts has never quite been as colourful without him. Some players leave a gap when they disappear. Devon left something closer to a carnival procession, a brass band, several metric tonnes of positive energy and enough dancing to make Strictly Come Dancing look like a funeral procession.

And let’s be honest – if he does make a comeback, there’s a fair chance we’ll hear him before we see him.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Devon Petersen. If African darts is going to flourish and more bizarre dances are going to be created through some previously undiscovered form of wrist sorcery, then he is almost certainly the man responsible.