Question: When might you see a nightclub owner, a butcher, a psychiatric nurse and an electrician in action in the World Cup?

Answer: When it's the World Cup of darts.

Next week Simon Carruthers, Steve Hickmott, Gregor McQueen and Vernon Daniels will be flying the flag for Bermuda alongside the best players on the planet.

And for Daniels the World Darts Federation event in Epinal, France promises to be more memorable than for most.

That's because the Queens Club player has drawn none other than world number two Raymond van Barneveld of Holland in the preliminary round of the singles.

As well as that competition, the quartet will also be represented in the team and pairs events.

Bermuda have been drawn in the same pool as Finland, Malta, Switzerland and South Africa in the team round robin, while in Group A of the pairs Hickmott and Daniels have drawn the Finnish duo of Kantele and Viljanen and McQueen and Carruthers will meet the winners of the France against Scotland clash in Group B.

The rest of the singles ties see McQueen take on Tengku Hadzali Shah of Malaysia, Hickmott face Vincent Busuttil of Malta and Carruthers play David Miklas of the Czech Republic.

Team spokesman Carruthers, who has been allowed time off from preparing for his imminent marriage, said they were under no illusion as to the scale of the task ahead.

"We all love darts but to be as good as these guys are you really need to play at that level day in and day out," he said. "They are used to the pressure of the TV cameras and so forth. You need to play under that pressure all the time if you are to reach their standard.

"We can play like that every other game in a league match or against each other but when you are there at the venue and try to do it under pressure it is quite an immense ask. But we are all looking forward to it and are going to do the best that we can and take it all in."

For those who think darts is all about turning up to the pub, puffing a cigarette, drinking several pints and chucking a few arrows at the board, think again.

OK, they may not be running up and down hills and lifting weights but Team Bermuda have been taking their preparation seriously.

"We have training sessions up at my club on Mondays and Thursdays," Carruthers said. "And then me and Gregor and some of the other guys will have a couple of hours every other day on a board somewhere.

"Practice is a key element and concentration, making sure you can leave something for yourself and knowing how to get it. If you have got 126 left it's no use throwing for the 20 first because if you miss you haven't got a finish. If you go for triple 19, if you miss you have still got triple 19, bull.

"There's a lot of thinking and mathematics. It takes a lot of practice to get to the level where you know exactly what you are doing before you get to the board."