Jocky Wilson: World title triumph 40 years ago made him a star and transformed darts

Jocky Wilson, king of the oche, remains one of Fife’s greatest stars, but one who simply left the stage and lived a life well away from the spotlight.

Wilson is still revered in the darts community, and it all began with his triumph at the Embassy World Championships in January 1982 – the first Scotsman to lift the trophy.

Eight days of incredible action in the smoky atmosphere of Jollees Nite Club in Stoke On Trent ended when he beat John Lowe 5-3.

The result changed his life forever, but the desire to be among his own folk never left him.

Jocky jumped straight in his car and drove through the night to get home.

He celebrated with family and his mates with the trophy placed on the bar at the Lister Bar where it all started.

He gave it to go on display at Dysart Social and Recreation Club where he threw his first darts and won his first trophy.

The Fife Free Press joined the throng and spoke to the man everyone wanted a piece of.

“I have won plenty of British championships but I am over the moon to have won the world title - not for the sake of the prize-money, but for the honour,” he said.

He paid handsome tribute to Lowe - a gentleman opponent.

“He congratulated me on every set I won saying ‘good darts’ I said the same to him.”

When he stepped up to the oche to throw the double 16 to win the world title, Jocky recalled: “I said to myself, take your time, get this and you are the champ.’”

By 4:00am, he was back in Kirkcaldy where he discovered his home in Kelso Place had suffered a burst water tank sustained during a brutal Arctic winter.

The news had been kept from him during the tournament.

There was little time to tackle the damage - he was off to Livingston and Galashiels for exhibition games the next day, and, by midweek he was off to Spain for the Mediterranean Open.

Suddenly, the labourer, miner and hustler from Kirkcaldy was in big demand.

While he was never cut out for fame, the one thing the wee man could do was throw an arrow better than anyone.

He went from a council house in Kirkcaldy to world champ and back again, closing his front door and disappearing from view.

When he died in 2012, everyone assumed he must have been in his late 70s or early 80s as he hadn’t been seen for decades. He was just 62 years of age.

It remains a mystery why, to this day his home town still has no landmark - a plaque or street name - to honour his remarkable achievements and the significant influence he had on his sport.

True, Jocky would certainly not have turned up for any formal celebration.

He declined almost every request for an interview, politely rejected every invitation to celebrate landmark anniversaries, never sold his story, never sought pity. He simply left the stage.

His legacy may belong to another era, but it is a remarkable one that has to be told once more - because Jocky is integral to the story of darts, and to Kirkcaldy’s history.

As a player he won two world titles and a place in at least the quarter-finals every year from 1979 to 1991, claimed four British championships, played in several World Cups, and won the very first Unipart Professional Darts Championship which carried the sport’s highest ever purse.

The road from the Lister Bar - now demolished without so much as a nod to its remarkable place in British sporting history - to the world stage was packed with incident and controversy, and has sparked many stories, most of them true.

Jocky honed his skills in the town’s thriving darts scene.

Every pub had a team back then, with games played across the week.

They packed into pubs and social clubs, and silverware was fiercely contested.

He was still a member of the Lister Bar team when he turned pro at the start of the 80s, but, by then, the stages were much bigger.

BBC took the sport out of pubs and into millions of homes, and Jocky was among its first superstars.

He was one of the first sportsmen to have a computer game named after him by the then fledgling industry. He won sponsorship from brands such as 100 Pipers Scotch whisky, saw the manufacture of darts flights bear his name, but he still hustled - taking on anyone, winning big money, and then losing it all.

And when it all became too much, he headed back to the place he knew best. Kirkcaldy.

His last interview came in 2007 when he spoke on his doorstep to journalist Mike Wade.

In an era of agents, press officers and lucrative media deals to sell your story, Jocky said thanks, but no thanks every time the nationals knocked on his door.

His reluctance to revisit the glory years was summed up at his front door when he hesitated and told Mike: “Ach, I enjoyed it while it lasted. But that’s life, eh?

“You get knocked for six, and then that’s it. I couldn’t do it now. I just want to be left alone because all they write about me is crap, and I don’t want to read about that. That’s it in a nutshell. I’m sorry. I don’t want to shut the door in your face.”

His death in March 2012 was recorded with an obituary in The Times.

Not bad for a boy from Kirkcaldy.

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