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Eric Bristow Eric’s
parents were married for 20 years and married quite young. They were ordinary
working class folk who lived in London. On the 25th of April at 7-50am Eric was
born in Hackney hospital. He was not a particularly big baby and gave no signs
that he would grow to be 6ft 3 and 15 stone.
Eric was an only child and is remembered by his teachers and school
friends as being a cheeky boy. His
father was quite old fashioned in as much as he did not want him going to a
school where there was the distraction of girls, so Eric was persuaded to go to
Hackney Grammar School. In
1971 he started to go to darts matches with his father at the Arundel Arms. His
father encouraged him and out of some gambling winnings, bought him a set of
tungsten darts, which were starting to become popular. By this time he was
becoming a useful player and even then had the trademark of the little finger
cocked in the air. Although
he had attended a grammar school he was not destined to gain a good education
and left without taking any exams. But when he left school he had little trouble
finding a job for which he earned £12 a week. He had several jobs but did not
settle in any of them and it was not long before he decided he wanted to be the
best darts player there had ever been.
By
the age of 17 he was winning small local competitions and playing for London
County. In 1975 he threw for England and then there was no holding him back. In
1976 one of his friends brought a memento back from America in the shape of a
T-shirt with the pubs name and logo on it called the “Crafty Cockney.” Eric
was impressed by the shirt and started wearing it to matches. In
1979 Bristow became a regular partner of Maureen Flowers in doubles games and as
they spent more time in each other’s company romance blossomed. She was
several years older than himself, but as most of his previous girlfriends had
been older as well this did not prove to be a problem. Early
in the 1980s Maureen wanted him to invest some of his rapidly accumulating
wealth and in 1984 he bought a disused club in Burslem, Stoke on Trent. Eric
Bristow went on to become the best player in the world for a number of years and
has won just about every title going but he did go through a bad patch where he
could not release his darts properly. This problem became known as Dartitus and
gained recognition as a genuine condition. (Extract From The Book “Darts For Everyone – By Alan J. Hartley - Published 24/6/2004) In 1985 Bristow penned a dart book called “Darts - A complete guide to the game.” It is still available in Paperback and runs to 96 pages. December of 2008 saw Eric Bristow publish his new book called. “The Autobiography: The Crafty Cockney,” priced at £18.99 for the Hardback version containing some 352 Pages and widely available, although it is heavily discounted at some outlets. Eric’s new book is said to be a fantastic read and gives an insight to the crazy world of darts with many anecdotes that are peppered with wit and hilarity. One of the best is when he turned around in breach of protocol having received his MBE he quickly corrected himself with the words, "Sorry Darling'" to the Queen. Similarly when he said to an attractive woman, "Excuse me, darling, will you ask Mohammad Ali for his autograph for me? Cheers love" he put her curt response down to attitude until he discovered she was Princess Caroline of Monaco. Other fantastic stories told involve many of the legends of darts such as Jocky Wilson, Cliff Lazarenko and Keith Deller. |
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