Bellies and Bullseyes by Sid Waddell

Author:Sid Waddell
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781407030449
Publisher: Ebury Publishing
Published: 2009-10-16T04:00:00+00:00

Three months later, there was another crisis, and this one was much nearer home. I was made redundant from my job as assistant producer at the BBC in Manchester. Since 1976 I had worked on documentaries, sports programmes, The Russell Harty Show and children’s shows as a film director and occasional reporter. I was always given time off to do the darts. I got the news in April 1992 and was down in the dumps for a few days. My wife Irene was a tower of strength, insisting that I would do very well as a freelance. I was not so sure, but then Lady Luck stepped in. While still working out my notice at the Beeb, I bumped into Ian Squires, a very bright TV executive who was boss of Zenith North TV in Newcastle. He took me for a beer and suggested I think about fronting a series called Waddell’s World that his company would make for Tyne Tees Television. He did not know that I was about to be a freelance. When I told him and mentioned that the WDC were looking for television exposure, his eyes lit up.

Within a few weeks a meeting was arranged in Newcastle with Ian and me, WDC representatives and the bosses of Vaux Brewery. The upshot was the Samson Darts Classic that would feature the top WDC players and would be recorded in Newcastle in April 1993. I was going to be busy: I was to be the producer, presenter and commentator. Dick Allix even asked if I’d like to play in the qualifiers. I had nailed my colours firmly alongside the Jolly Roger on the mast of the good ship WDC. For this I was to pay a price.

After the videotape episode relations between the BDO and the WDC went downhill rapidly. Just as had already happened in tennis and athletics, the players realised their own market value and wanted a big say in running their sport. They suggested to the BDO that the WDC promote about four tournaments a year, with the BDO running them. This was dismissed out of hand. The BDO acted as though professional players like Eric Bristow and Jocky Wilson did not have contracts with their agents. Often at the Embassy world championship presentations I would end up in a corner with Dick Allix and Tommy Cox, who represented Eric and Jocky respectively, and listen to their tales of BDO arrogance and intransigence.

In October 1992 I attended another new plank in the WDC platform, the recording of the Lada UK Masters in Norwich by Anglia TV, and the commentators were John Gwynne and Dave Lanning. There were rumours that the players there – the ‘rebel’ sixteen – would be banned by the BDO, but the spirit in the WDC camp was high. Old stagers like Lazarenko talked of democracy and player power, and there was also talk that the sixteen would boycott the 1993 Embassy world championship.

So you can well imagine the wary steps I

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