RIP Jocky Wilson - Dies aged 62

[Win2Win]

Was twice World Champion back in the 80's and was one of the best dart players around at the time. He'd been ill with lung problems for a long time and it eventually caught up with him.

[barneymather]

Sorry to hear this news. In what I think of as the heyday of darts in the early 1980s, wee Jocky and Eric Bristow had some titanic battles. Guys like Cliff Lazarenko, John Lowe and Tony Brown were the ones to keep an eye on when I first started watching darts on TV.

I read today that Jocky reached at least the quarter-finals of every World Championship between 1979 and 1991, and he was also British champion four times between 1981 and 1988. Quite a track record, and I think the competiton was tougher then.

I always liked watching Bristow play as well as he had the kind of personality the game thrives on. I lost interest in darts though when it went to Sky and Phil Taylor won the world championship a zillion times on the trot. Ironically for Eric Bristow, it was he who bankrolled Taylor's start in the game.

It's a pity the BDO couldn't make peace with the top players before the breakaway, as I don't think forming the PDC and broadcasting tournaments on satellite did darts any favours. Far less people would see games than they could if they were shown on BBC2, which everyone had access to and which could draw in casual viewers. For any kind of niche sport/game to prosper, it has to reach the widest possible audience, and in the long run, I think moving darts coverage to Sky was a short-sighted move.

But considering the contribution he made, Jocky could and should have made a lot more out of the game than he did.