Eric Bristow

Eric John Bristow MBE 25 April 1957 5 April 2018 nicknamed The Crafty Cockney was an English professional darts player He was ranked World No 1 by the World Darts Federation a record five times in 1980 1981 and 19831985 He was a fivetime World Champion a fivetime World Masters Champion a fourtime World Cup singles champion and 2time champion of the News of the World Darts Championship He won 22 WDF and BDO Major titles and 70 career titles overall In the 1980s Bristows skill and personality helped turn darts into a worldwide spectator sport In 1993 Bristow was one of sixteen top players who broke away from the British Darts Organisation BDO to form their own organisation which became the Professional Darts Corporation PDC He retired from competitive darts in 2007 and subsequently worked as a commentator and pundit on Sky Sports darts coverage In the 1980s Bristow came across Phil Taylor then a raw darts talent in StokeonTrent He sponsored him with about 10000 to fund his development in the game on the understanding that the money would be repaid Taylor went on to usurp his mentor as the greatest darts player ever with Bristow often on the receiving end of his brilliance From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia