Eric Bristow

(The Crafty Cockney)

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Born
Deceased

Birth Place
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Hackney, London, England

Position
Darts Player

Status
Deceased

Ethnicity
White

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Right

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Sport

Darts

Team
_Deceased Darts

2nd Team

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Description

Eric John Bristow MBE (25 April 1957 – 5 April 2018), nicknamed "The Crafty Cockney", was an English professional darts player and one of the most recognisable and successful players of the 1980s. He was ranked World No. 1 by the World Darts Federation a record five times, in 1980, 1981, 1983–1985 and 1989-1990. Between 1980 and 1991, Bristow featured in ten BDO World Darts Championship finals, winning the title five times, in 1980, 1981, 1984, 1985 and 1986. He was also a five-time World Masters Champion, a four-time World Cup singles champion and twice winner of the News of the World Darts Championship. He won 22 WDF and BDO Major titles, 65 individual career titles and 15 titles in team events, a total of 80 overall. He hosted the first two episodes of the darts-themed ITV game show Bullseye and regularly featured on the show.

In late 1986, Bristow began experiencing symptoms of dartitis, which affected his career thereafter. In 1987, he began sponsoring and mentoring Phil Taylor, who went on to become the most successful darts player of all time. In 1993, Bristow and Taylor both became involved in the split in darts as two of the 16 players who left the British Darts Organisation (BDO) to form the World Darts Council, which later became the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). Bristow's last major achievement as a player was reaching the semi-finals of the 1997 WDC World Darts Championship, where he narrowly lost to Taylor.

After retiring from competitive darts in 2007, Bristow worked as a commentator and pundit on Sky Sports darts coverage until the network sacked him in 2016 following a controversial series of tweets. In April 2018, Bristow suffered a heart attack while attending a Premier League Darts event in Liverpool and died at the age of 60.