WE continue the countdown to the 2018/2019 William Hill World Championship as PDC referee Russ Bray shares his World Championship memories.
‘The Voice’ made his debut at the 1996/1997 World Championship and has become one of the most recognisable faces in the sport. Here, he shares his best memories of the tournament….
I remember being as nervous as they come on my debut!
I’d done a couple of matches in Blackpool earlier that year but my big debut in front of the cameras came at the Circus Tavern at the Worlds.
I was shaking, I could feel my heart beating in my head, I was feeling physically sick with nerves.
My first game was Mick Manning and Dave Askew and thankfully I got through it with no mistakes which settled me down. Nowadays I don’t get nervous, I look forward to the games and I get really excited for them.
At the Circus Tavern I was once refereeing a game involving Colin Lloyd and I made the fatal mistake of guessing where a dart had gone.
Colin went single 20, single 19, single 19 but I thought one of the darts in the 19 was in the seven so I called ’46.’
Colin then threw his arms out and I was thinking ‘oh no, I’ve made a mistake’ so I’ve had another look and realised the dart was in the 19 just inside the wire. So I called ‘sorry 38’ forgetting about the single 20!
I then had to correct myself again, saying ‘sorry 58!’
Of course, everyone was laughing and one fan down the front shouted ‘you should’ve gone to Specsavers!’ which you could hear on TV so that was a bit embarrassing to say the least!
Hear more World Championship memories from darts legends in the book 'Twenty-five Years of the PDC World Championship' which is available to PRE-ORDER NOW.