Oche And Out – When Darts Players Fall Over On Stage
Darts fans are notoriously loud and raucous bunch so when their heroes take a tumble on stage they won’t let them forget about it.
It doesn’t happen very often of course, but when the best darts players slip in front of the TV cameras, it does it gives us all a good laugh.
Names as big as legendary pair Jocky Wilson and Martin Adams have been left red-faced after tripping up on stage much to the delight of the chanting spectators, some of whom have even joined in on occasions.
In the past, we have seen players drinking from the wrong water bottles and only weeks ago world number one Gerwyn ‘The Iceman’ Price was laughed at when he dropped a dart on the oche during his World Darts Championship quarter-final match against eventual runner up Michael Smith.
The Welshman is still to fall over on stage however but we can’t say the same for the following few unfortunate fellows.
Jocky Falls At The First
A star of the eighties and one of the most memorable figures in the history of darts, Jocky Wilson won BDO World Darts Championship titles in both 1982 and 1989 and was known for his colourful character.
The Scot played a big part in the rise of televised darts during his era alongside the likes of Eric Bristow, Bob Anderson and John Lowe.
Scotland’s first-ever world darts champion even made an appearance on the BBC’s flagship music show at the time, Top Of The Pops, when Dexys Midnight Runners performed their cover of the Van Morrison song “Jackie Wilson Said”.
He did like a drink though and would regularly play with a pint by his side and was also said to have downed pints of vodka that had been disguised to look like cola.
And on one occasion, his thirst got the better of him when, during his 1984 world championship defeat to Dave Whitcombe, he drunkenly fell over and landed off the stage and on his face.
Seeing the humour in the mishap, Wilson got up and congratulated his victor.
Clumsy Like The Wolf
Three-time BDO World Champion Martin “Wolfie” Adams, who is also a three-time World Masters champion, has been in the professional game since 1981 and remains a formidable darter and fan favourite to this day.
He didn’t enjoy the happiest of days at the 2015 BDO HAL Masters in Venray, Netherlands, however, when the venue made the unusual decision to make the players walk down a flight of stairs instead of the usual flat runway.
While he did reach the final of the low-key event in one of his matches, he was unable to master the complete stairway, tripping on the final few steps and losing his balance and tumbling out of site.
Amazingly, the crowd remained calm, had it have happened at the Ally Pally Wolfie would have got the biggest cheer of the night.
Bravedart Takes A Tumble
Before the World Grand Prix was founded in 1998, there was a competition called the World Pairs tournament which ran from 1995 to 1997.
During the 1996 event, one match saw Phil Taylor and Bob Anderson take on Keith Deller and Jamie Harvey.
Harvey, nicknamed “Bravedart” because he was Scottish, had a career that included two spells in the BDO as well as being one of the founding members of the PDC.
Also in 1996, the Scot managed to reach the semi-final stage of both the PDC World Championship and the World Darts Matchplay, but it was his mishap in Salford that most people remember.
In the Group One match in the last 16, Harvey was playing alongside Deller when he fell off the stage, leaving Taylor looking bemused as to what happened as Harvey disappeared from the stage.
Unfortunately, the telly cameras missed the actual incident at the time, meaning viewers at home were left as baffled as to what happened as The Power.
The Thorn Is Nipped In The Bud
There must be something about facing the greatest darts player of all time, Phil Taylor.
Perhaps it’s the nerves.
We don’t know if that was the case when, during judgment night of the 2014 Premier League of Darts, Robert Thornton had to face The Power to stay in the competition.
Eventually ending up a 7-4 loser, The Thorn was clipped in the 10th leg while collecting his darts prior to tripping past the match referee Russ Bray and failing to regain his balance.
In an attempt to save his opponent, Taylor leaped forward to try and catch Thornton, who only just narrowly avoided crashing into his table and falling from the stage.
Thornton limped back to his table with his head down, possibly in embarrassment, likely in pain, while Taylor then stepped up to the oche to continue the match.
Thornton managed to see out the game in what was to be his last Premier League appearance for another two years.
Sun Goes Down
At the Ally Pally for the 2017 PDC World Darts Championships, China’s Qiang Sun provided one of the more memorable moments of the tournament.
The Chinese player suffered a nightmare prior to his 2-0 preliminary round defeat against Australian wonderkid against Corey Cadby.
The 51-year-old was shaking hands with the match officials before he embarrassingly tripped over the oche and fell flat on his face.
As you might expect, the boisterous crowd loved it and were cheering and laughing in hysterics.
Sun was soon laughing himself though as he was helped back to his feet by PDC Master of Ceremonies John McDonald.
He might walk on water, but…
During one night of the 2017 European Tour1 1 in Riesa, Germany one fan got a little too excited.
Invited to come on stage during the warm-up for a Peter ‘Snakebite’ Wright match, one crazy German who had come along for the evening dressed as Jesus really got into the swing of things when he began to shake his long hair back and forth like a would-be rock star.
Naturally, our wannabe lord and saviour made himself quite dizzy, and when he turned around to shake hands with the walk on girls things didn’t quite go to plan.
While the TV camera angles don’t quite catch the initial wobble, the look on the walk on girls’ faces tell the story as Jesus, wig in hand, stumbles backwards towards the edge of stage before inevitably tripping over a speaker and preceding to plop backwards off the edge and posting himself into some kit requiring the help of security guards to help him get back on his hallowed feet.
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