Scotlands Best Ever Champion " Jocky Wilson "

[Getagrip]

Originally posted in the old forum:


To any young up and coming young player below is my true accounts with Jocky Wilson seeing the 3 sides of Jocky

and The Sad Decline Of Jocky some links below also vv


https://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/nov...NETTXT3487


https://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2007/jan/14/sport.news


And My Story Of Jocky vv

In the days from 1977' Jocky Wilson played with the Leighton Rees darts but even although i did play him in the local
i knew as well as others that his darts were then the Leighton Rees darts them days

though a cant remember the stems jocky used with them now but wasnt the deflectagrip stems which he made his own
as a dont think in 77' they were out in that year but possibly were the bubble type stems as most used them in 77' and 79 ish
although they i remember broke easily when a dart hit the top of the stem and we were replacing stems more them days

Then a few yrs after Jocky Wilson brought out his own Darts and stems which were the Deflectagrip stems with the rings in them
they lasted much longer and so everyone began playing more with them
he Jocky also had his own white flights with name on them i remember
but ye it sticks in my memory when i was going good guns in my local here in Fife like it was y/day
when he headed straight for the board and asks who is on only board ? only for the guys to say the young lad meaning me

and as sais was Leighton Rees darts jocky played with them days
and after i played him that game of darts in which i just lost for money and was only 17 yrs of age them days
being underage --> aye and so what :roll:
Anyhow it was approx 3/4 mths after i seen him on tv also with same Leighton Rees Darts
and soon after he later brought out his own style Darts with the straight slimmer barrel ..

A remember he had asked me to play for money as all he sais after asking who is on the board was Money to me
and myself being young and them days cocky sais how much ?
as i then didnt have a clue as to who he was with his long hair or even his name as never seen him on tv then

Anyhow to cut a longer story shorter i played him for a Fiver £5 which in 77' can pay for a night out them days
he won that game just and my lowest score was 60 ..

Also went to Londons Wembley Conference Centre to a Marlboro tournament with 3 older men this was in 1979 '
as one of the older guys made the tournament by winning some local tourney which i add i never knew about ..

Anyhow me and the 3 others travelled down by car and myself along with Jock my then doubles partner
We both sitting in the back seat drinking bottles beer all way down to just outside Norwich region somewhere lol
names went fae me now likes, anyhow we stayed at a relatives of one of the older guys, then nxt day made our way
to Wembleys Conference Centre and was a big venue as expected
and to cut a long story short i remember the man with us had lost his 1st game 2/1 and the game he won was on the Bullseye
and the one game he lost he scored a 180, also we all played in same team for local Club them days


Anyhow bit later on i was at bar which then was busy, and after i ordered our round, i heard a voice pipe up Hey m8 you a Fifer
a sais aye, it was Jocky himsel,f not to long back from America as he had been playing for Scotland ..
Anyhow he lifts the trey of drinks and asks where you sitting m8 as i pointed him over towards the 3 men a was with
and so he came over and took a seat while chatting away,
he was sitting on my right hand side a remember
and a sais to him as i was a bit curious
What like was America Jocky ?
He replied you wanna know, a sais aye, he then takes out a pic from inside his jacket pocket and hands it to me
it was a pic of Jocky sitting on a toilet seat doing a crap

I being them days a young guy had a big etched upon ma fac as had jocky at such while i then handed the pic to the older guys
a was with and they just handed such back to Jocky whom thought it amusing


Meantime also bumped into Jocky while i was practicing on a board in Forfar in Angus while Fife were playing v Tayside at County darts
and he Jocky it was on his own whom looked in the Lounge door, and i was only person in that Small Lounge throwing darts
with only a beer for company and Jocky pops his head inside sais ok if i can get a throw at the board with ye m8

A reply aye its fine , no bad a think as the then World champion asks me ok if he can get a throw at the board with me

anyhow he Jocky then throwing back/forth with me then asks me you play for Fife m8 a sais "No"
he Jocky then sorty i remember raised his eyebrows as if to say well you should be , thats another story
as jealousy again raises its ugly head, anyhow he was fun and gd company
i remember asking him how he got along with Eric Bristow and he sais Fine
and that both him and Eric got along well and was just a Scotland v England thing going on between them at the time

So 3 times i met Jocky Wilson 1st time in that local bar in 77' and played him for money and that was the skint jocky
with then no money and with his then long hair down his back and he would hustle to play for the price of
a beer or vodka or ten them days it was an older guy then whom pulled me aside to tell me who he was in 1977
also later he was half pie-eyed as he left the bar that night ..

Then there was the Jocky i met in Londons Wembley Conference Centre whom was sober and just back fae America
playing fir Scotland ..

And the Jocky when World Champion was in the Plough Inn in Forfar Angus and shared the practice board along with me after asking is it ok
and he then later when others came into Lounge i remember got pics taken with some young females ,
and bought many of us a drink in the Lounge ..i can say some more but wont lol

I never sais anything about yrs before when he came into that local bar in Fife and sais Money to me after being told i was on the board

Anyhow in Forfar ^^ i remember this local guy from the Tayside region sais Jocky Wilson
Aye Jocky sais, the guy sais im playing you and ill beat you , Jocky replied well we shall soon see then eh

and somehow i then thought to myself that ill have to see this match

I went and joined all the people watching and there was no game in it as i expected
Jocky winning 3/0 so another game for Fife ..

Anyhow i met the 3 Jocky Wilsons one the hustler asking to play me for money when a was on a good run on the board
when only 17 yrs of age in the then local bar

The other Jocky i met was fun when sober , and remember the other when with drink can be a bit loud
but i reckon to this day if he was born an Englishman and raised in England then Guaranteed he would have won much more
in the game regards tournaments WHY ? vv

My thoughts are he being born and raised here in Scotland i feel at that time when Darts was much bigger here didnt help
because of the drinking culture here, some may say thats an excuse, well all to their own thoughts
but mines is that this is true and didnt help matters
Crikey even the Scottish Government now are battling to try to curb the drinking culture BUT its to a lost cause

Anyhow regsards today the Dartboards in bars now are left empty with no one playing the game
as much now is sad, but is the case nowadays here BUT possibly because i feel all youngsters at School now
always use computers to count for them

whereas in my day we all had to learn on our own to calculate by memory in which is a must for playing Darts
and so easy once learnt and even if stopping say playing for a time you wont lose such regards calculating on a Dartboard
its is like learning to ride a bike and once learnt then it becomes the norm
i learnt myself with playing with other older players them days as wasnt many at all here young players my age group
then for sure but i learnt and kept the calculations in my memory for future use Guests cannot see images in the messages. Please register at the forum by clicking here to see images.

Nowadays Jocky he is sais to suffer from depression and athritis and is a recluse whom never leaves his flat - apartment
and stays in a run down area in Kirkcaldy and doesnt have any money whatsoever and is living on disability living allowance
but when asked once is there anything you would have done to change your life if given the chance

he sais they can take all the money away but they can never take away the fact i was 2wice the World Champion
as he pointed towards the rather large frame he has on his Living room wall clutching the World Darts trophy Guests cannot see images in the messages. Please register at the forum by clicking here to see images.

I think it would be nice to have a thread regarding Dart Players whom were well known from the past and i begin
this with one player whom i both played against plus shared a practice board with in a small Lounge and met also when in London ..

So i begin this thread about Scotlands 2 times winner of the then big one the Embassy World Title in which Jocky Wilson won it 2wice
then defeating both John Lowe in 1982s Final and then again defeating Eric Bristow in 1989s Final
not forgetting he won many other titles inbetween with reaching the Quarters and Semis and also in also other years in the Embassy etc

My thoughts also with being born and raised here in Scotland i feel at that time when Darts was much bigger here them days than now
didnt help Jocky because of the drinking culture here, some may say thats an excuse, well all to their own thoughts
but mines is that this is true and didnt help matters vv
Crikey even the Scottish Government now are battling to try to curb the drinking culture BUT its to a lost cause
its a part of Scottish culture sadly ..

Anyhow My Own True Story Of When Meeting Jocky Below vv

Ye i seen the 3 Jocky Wilsons and miss that big infectious Guests cannot see images in the messages. Please register at the forum by clicking here to see images. he has which is something we miss in todays Darts i feel
he was and he happens to be my all time fav player and there is no secret that many Scots Darters were Jealous
of Jockys then fame and some still are to this day which is rather sad

Scots as a people as Billy Connolly (Comedian) sais himself sais its in the Scottish Psyche Scots tend to not like
the idea of other Scotsmen with fame and i add also jealousy is rife among Scots regarding such
and i agree with what Billy Connolly sais, sad as it is, its so true.

Anyhow here below the Jocky i like to remember his 1st Embassy World Title Win V John Lowe in 1982 vv

[jamie373]

it is been a little over a year since Jocky passed away and i have to be honest and say i was told last night that it had been this long, it's sad i think that it has largely gone unmentioned and i haven't seen anything to mark this day , not to say there hasn't been anything , but i think that maybe i'll add to this thread and others can add their own memories of Jocky too. i'm new to this sport but being born in the 70's and growing up in the 80's Jocky was someone that you couldn't fail to notice. so even though i wasn't into darts i was fully aware of this man who was at the time a living legend with so many humorous stories about him. the post above is a great read and if you haven't already i suggest you give it a read. i'd be great if you could post the stories you have heard about this true legend and we can all look back with fond memories of a great man

from wikipedia:-
John Thomas "Jocky" Wilson (22 March 1950 – 24 March 2012) was a professional darts player from Fife, Scotland. After turning pro in 1979 he quickly rose to the top of the game, winning the World Professional Darts Championship in 1982, then again in 1989. A contemporary and rival of Eric Bristow, Bob Anderson and John Lowe, Wilson won many titles in his career including the British Professional Championship a record four times between 1981 and 1988, as well as the prestigious British Open and Matchplay titles. He suddenly retired from the game on 23 December 1995, withdrew from public life, and was rarely seen in public or gave interviews before his death in March 2012.
His greatest achievements came in the World Championships, first in 1982 where he beat Lowe 5-3 in the final, and then seven years later, when he beat his other great rival Bristow 6-4 in a classic match, where Bristow had recovered from 5-0 down to find himself at 5-4 and 2-2 in the tenth set. This was to be the Scot's last taste of success in a major event although the odd final appearance still came over the next few years.
His record at the World Championship was one of great consistency. From his debut in 1979 until 1991 he managed to reach at least the quarter-finals on every single occasion. He was quarter-finalist eight times (1979, 1980, 1981, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1991) and three-times a losing semi-finalist (1983, 1984, 1987) in addition to his two World titles. In 1992 and 1993 he suffered first round defeats for the only time at the Lakeside Country Club.
Wilson was sometimes controversial, occasionally outspoken, but always extremely popular with darts fans who loved his honest approach and natural talent.
In 1982, Wilson was banned from competing in darts tournaments after he allegedly threw a punch at an official during a championship. This was taken as a reaction to Jocky's being under intense pressure at the time of the Falklands War, as he was married to an Argentine woman named Malvina (the Argentine name for the Falkland Islands is "Islas Malvinas"). He was soon allowed back into professional competitions again.
Jocky and Malvina had two sons, John and William, and one daughter, Anne Marie.
Wilson was a constant sweet-eater and generally refused to brush his teeth ("My Gran told me the English poison the water"); he had lost his last tooth by the age of 28. Following his 1982 World title win, he paid £1,200 for dentures, but never took to them. They made him belch when drinking, he complained.


please add your own thoughts R.I.P Jocky

[DIRTY G]

Good read good guy.
My boss who is an Englishman, was a very accomplished dart player here in Perth but has not picked up a dart for 20 years due to a fallout with our darts federation told me that when the big namers came to WA he was the first bloke they rang. Turns out that he played him in the late 80's early 90's. I will have to get the details cuz there was a bit of dramer when some mug said something to Jockey's wife and he went ape lol . As anyone would.

All I know for shure is that my boss got beat, He blamed the lighting hahahahahaha
He said to me that he was in the warm up room and couldn't miss a triple and he thought to himself that he was gunna wipe the floor with him but when he went out on the stage the lighting was different. THE BLOODY LOSER hehehehehe

I will have to find out the final score and what went on with the twat that Jockey was gunna kill.

[rabsmith2]

A bloody disgrace to his memory, Sky should hang their head in shame. A few mins for the great man would not have killed them. Now my wee story about Jocky came from Booby George I think. They were all out in Aisa doing a promotion tour, the promoters brought out the world table tennis player and he showed the crowd a few shots!! Jocky approaches the table tennis table yer man serves to Jockey and Jockey returns the volley, yer man serves again jocky takes out his teeth hits the ball with them gets the point grins and says thank you and walks away laughing. A true gem and a sad loss to the darting family, still shocked that they had not got the decency to honour his memory. Thoughts are with Malvina sons, John and William, and daughter, Anne Marie. Sleep well wee man.

[jamie373]

well said Rab and great story. been watching Jocky in action today in some old clips. i find it amazing that he can hit the target with that throw . if i threw like that i'd be smashing light bulbs and the chalker and probably myself .

[Getagrip]

yeah you think they would have mentioned it, very poor of them.

[JayKay]

That was a nice read that was. I have fond memories of him as a very small child in the eighties watching him play. My mum was a darter and she loved watching him so so did I. I saw him once as a kid in butlins, Ayr in a darts tournament. It was in October and it was my mum's first anniversary I think and she got a match board signed by all the players. This was very early 90s. Maybe 90 or 91. My match darts are now Jocky Wilson's ghost grip. I have fond childhood memories of watching him and Bristow slug it out.
Happy times

[DIRTY G]

Glad this got bumped I must have missed it the first time round,
R.I.P. Jockey and long live the drinkers