The Darts World 50

ERIC BRISTOW produced a superb performance in the 1985 World Championship final. Indeed, due to the oncoming problems with dartitis, some would claim it to be his last truly outstanding effort. He was playing the second-best player in the World, in John Lowe, and a man who was unflappable in ordinary circumstances. But Eric was not ordinary.

In winning the title, Eric made sure his was the first name on the new trophy after he had been given the previous one, for winning it three times. His ferocious opening spell included eleven early 180s on his way to a record total of fourteen.

“I just want to be a winner – to be the greatest darts player ever”

Whatever your view of the debate that rages today about who the best ever, or ‘GOAT’, might be. There can be little doubt that Eric achieved his ambition during his era and has an arguable claim to this day.

Very few publications can lay claim to being “The Official Voice” of their sport. But then not many are almost 50 years old and have coexisted side by side with the object of their affection throughout the swings and roundabouts of two golden eras and at least one near collapse.

In the early 1970s, a handful of ingredients were coming together to form the recipe for the massive success of the hitherto lesser-known pub game. Darts World Magazine was one of those ingredients.

Editor, proprietor, and instigator, Tony Wood, welcomed readers to the new Darts World magazine for our November/December 1972 debut (Issue 1). The ingredients mentioned above could all be seen within those first 36 pages and then in every issue that followed.

DW has chronicled the ups and downs, the major events, and the minutiae while championing the game at every opportunity.

The Darts World 50 offers 50 highlights selected direct from our pages during what must now be thought of as the ‘Golden Age/s of Darts’.