Long before the infamous 'split in darts', when there was just one World Championship, the biggest star in the game was 'Crafty Cockney' Eric Bristow. Very much the Phil Taylor of his day, he was favourite for every tournament he entered, and he regularly backed up his big talk with wins and titles. He had two BDO World titles to his name already by 1983, plus three World Masters championships, and when he reached the final of the Embassy World Professional Darts Championship (then staged at Jollees Club in Stoke-on-Trent), he was heavy favourite against qualifier and surprise finalist, 23-year old Keith Deller from Ipswich.
Deller had already pulled off several shock wins to get to the final, defeating the well-respected John Lowe in the quarter-final and then putting out defending champion Jocky Wilson in the semi-final. Nonetheless, he wasn't given a hope against the 'Crafty Cockney', and a TV audience estimated at between 8 and 10 million tuned to BBC One to watch Bristow claim what would surely be a third World Championship.
However, Deller had not read the script. Taking a lead of three sets to one, he was pegged back to three-all before he once again stretched his lead to five sets to three. He then required only one more set to claim the title, but a succession of missed doubles allowed Bristow back into the match again, eventually levelling to five sets apiece. The match that everyone (apart from Bristow himself) saw as a Bristow walkover would go to a deciding set.
The last set went to the wire, with Deller requiring one more leg to take the set and match, Bristow had a chance of a check-out of 121 to win it. Having hit a single 17 and a treble 18, he needed to hit a bullseye to check out. However, with Deller requiring 138, Bristow decided not to go for it, instead he threw single 18, which would leave him his favourite double-16 next time - provided Deller did not check out successfully.
However, Deller hit the treble-20, then the treble-18 to leave a double-12 for the title, which he duly hit. The World Championship of 1983 belonged to Keith Deller; the so-called 'Milky Bar Kid' became the first qualifier to win the title and was also the youngest winner to date. Although to the public at large he was an overnight sensation, he'd been on the scene for three years by this time and was a highly-regarded player. He went on to win one more tournament and reach several finals that year, but the sudden fame did prove a bit much in the end, as he returned in 1984 as champion, only to lose in the first round.
Meanwhile Bristow bounced back to take the next three World Championships, his final title coming in 1986. His game was affected by 'dartitis' in later years, a condition where a player has trouble releasing the dart, although he did reach four more World finals.
Both Deller and Bristow joined the breakaway darts organisation the WDC (later PDC) in 1993 and took part in the early PDC versions of the World Championships, however it would be a former protegé of Bristow, Phil Taylor, who would go on to dominate the scene and become synonymous with the sport in a manner similar to that of Bristow during the 1980s.
***** 2023 Update: Sadly Eric Bristow passed away in April 2018, after attending a Premier League Darts event in Liverpool. He had been a 'spotter' for Sky Sports' TV coverage, working alongside the TV camera operators he would predict where the next dart was likely to land so that the cameras could zoom in on the correct spot. *****
Here is that final leg from 1983:
No comments:
Post a Comment