Bristow checks out

[Toby Gymshorts]

Dead at 60 following a heart attack. Single 20, Double Top, one assumes.

[johnr]

Nothing to say, bar 'great thread title' and 'very good post'.

Actually, I do have more to say. Always, always hated him, cos the 'Crafty Cockney' seemed to morph (in my head, at least) into 'Cockneys', and all my (Cockney) family thought he was a twat, and didn't want to be associated with him.

[Lang Spoon]

He seemed to be Jocky’s nemesis, so we hated him as well. And he was full of the working class Tory bigot bollocks. RIP so.

[Toby Gymshorts]

I'll leave my analysis at "good at darts but didn't seem to be a particularly pleasant person".

[nmrfox]

Sky's coverage was quite funny. The commentators blethered on about "sombre occasion" and "subdued atmosphere" whilst a pissed up crowd sang "There's only one E B" endlessly over and over with their placards aloft saying things like "Dilly Dilly" and "I luv darts".

Great to watch in the 80's and 90's as darts hit the big time, his comments show what a homophobic, misogynistic twat he was in real life.

[KGR]

This thread demonstrates why I love this forum. It is my haven from the rest of social media. Being too much of a wimp to post these types of feelings at Facebook or twitter, it's good to know that I can come here and agree with LS, TG etc.

[Amor de Cosmos]

I'm sure I must the only person who thought the title referred to old Evening Standard cartoon strip. And wondering why it was in Sport.

[HORN]

I remember being in his pub in the eighties (shit beer, decent pool tables) and he’d occasionally agree to throw a few darts for punters. He was, as you’d expect circa 1986, astonishingly good.

Probably because Bristow was so good I found I didn’t mind that arrogant expression on his slapped-arse face with its piggy eyes as he competed with (and usually beat) the likes of the melancholic John Lowe and the implausibly unhealthy Jocky Wilson.

[Logan Mountstuart]

Yeah, he was terrifyingly good. The Liverpool of darts during his heyday.

You could see him as a throwback to when Cockneys were Cockneys. It's just that Cockney culture in the 70s and 80s just wasn't that nice really.

Good interview with Danny Kelly once. Especially about how the yips affected him and taught him humility.

[Lang Spoon]

On the Go to Bed Now, this is shit Under The Moon? I think I might remember that interview. Or at least that it was on.

[Satchmo Distel]

Under The Moon was OK after the pub stuff and occasionally you would get phone callers calling Kelly a fat cunt, literally. Contrast it with Lovejoy and post-Lovejoy sports chat telly.

Bristow might still be GOAT contender were it not for Phil Taylor taking the game to another level. Compare averages now to the 80s and Eric would be struggling. He had a very good big game mentality though, like Steve Davis grinding down the people's favourites.

[wittoner]

A friend of mine once worked in a motorway service station. One night Eric Bristow came in and bought some confectionary. She scanned it through and said to him "Eric, you require £3.50"

That's my Eric Bristow anecdote.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

He of course had the honour of being one of the filthier entries in the Profanisaurus, a fact which has been overlooked in the obits I've seen so far.

[Jah Womble]

I had to look that one up. Kind of wish I hadn't.

Bit of a tool, but good at darts.

[Antepli Ejderha]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...mps-sex-abuse/

He might have been good at a pub game but he was an ignorant fuck.

[Tubby Isaacs]

This short film from 1979 is excellent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA1WDB29hrw

Arrows, directed by John Sampson.

[Snake Plissken]

https://twitter.com/IanReid25/status/982141245987241984

[johnr]

This short film from 1979 is excellent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA1WDB29hrw

Arrows, directed by John Sampson.

Thanks for that Tubbs, fascinating stuff on many levels.

The seventies was a great, and terrible, time.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Isn't it great?

Glad you enjoyed it.