By Elliott West
“I would never have picked up a dart without Eric Bristow. Eric will go down like an absolute superstar of sport. From all walks of life, people know who Eric Bristow was. He had that star quality. Not many people had that. They can show off and think they had it, but Eric had it.”
Wayne Mardle
Introduction
Aside from snooker, one of my favourite sports has to be darts. Turning 50 this year, I can remember this sport when it was played in a completely different era, one where the air was thick with cigarette smoke and alcohol was the norm. These were the days when players such as Jocky Wilson and John Lowe ruled the oche, playing in small and large venues for little prize money but fuelled instead by the beauty of darts. A game that like snooker may not be physical but one that plays havoc with your mind, relying on hours of deep concentration.
Eric Bristow, The Working Class Hero.
One of my favourites and someone who I would consider to be an icon of darts has to be the late and dearly missed Eric Bristow. Like myself who was born in Lambeth, Bristow hailed from another part of London, Hackney. Eric came from a working-class background, his father being a plasterer and his mother a telephone operator and like so many teenagers of the time, decided to leave school at the age of 14.
Winning his first world championship in 1980, defeating a friend of mine Bobby George, Bristow went on to dominate the game in the 1980s. He was the Jimmy White of darts, charismatic but ruthless, going to win the world championship in 1981, 1984, 1985 and 1986, only losing to Keith Deller in the final in 1983 and a first-round exit to Steve Brennan the previous year. As well as being a five-time world champion, he would also accumulate a whole host of trophies for his groaning mantelpiece. These included winning the World Masters fives times, the World Cup four times and the News of the World Darts Charts championship twice. Overall a total of 82 titles to his name.
The Man Himself
I was lucky enough to speak to Eric on several occasions on social media and had the privilege of him actually following me on Twitter. He came across as a highly likeable man who just loved what he did. He lived and breathed darts every day and whether it was here or in Spain, he loved nothing more than to be in the company of his friends and loved ones. Bristow had an infectious smile that lit up a room and liked nothing more than his pint of Guinness accompanied by his rolled-up cigarette.
I don’t actually think Bristow could have actually have done more for darts. He was a pioneer, taking the brave move to break away from the somewhat stale British Darts Organisation, alongside 16 other players in 1993 and to form the Professional Darts Cooperation. Thanks to Eric and others, the sport has grown to heady heights with attractive prize money, large venues and one where smoking is left to the perils of the elements outside and the players sip water instead of consuming copious pints. A man who was also a very successful commentator for darts on both Setanta and Sky Sports and someone who would mentor, a young Phil Taylor and look how successful he became.
It was such a shock when Eric Bristow suddenly passed away in 2018., aged only 60. Walking back to his car after attending a Premier League Darts event, Bristow collapsed in the car park and had to be rushed to hospital after suffering a heart attack. The Londoner was a proud man and probably had an inkling that something wasn’t quite right, health-wise, born out in a telling diary entry hours before his death:
“Thursday waiting for Joe to pick me up. Feel bad. Cold sweats. It feels like my heart is going to explode. Don’t like it. Going to ECHO – the show must go on.”
Eric Bristow
This was so telling because he never usually wrote anything apart from work events in his diary. So he must have been worried. Thankfully Eric passed instantly so wouldn’t have suffered, living his life and ending it in a darts environment. He always believed that the show must go on and darts was his fuel and passion.
