Jocky - A Nation Mourns

So farewell then, Jocky Wilson. Jocky on the Oche they used to say, back in the great days of TV darts, before it went all WWF and disappeared from our terrestrial screens for all but a few days a year.

True legends like Jocky didn’t need a vampire’s cape or a contrived ‘nickname’ to grip the armchair audience. A set of false teeth in his back pocket and a fag wedged in his non throwing hand were all the accessories Jocky needed. That and his “arrers”, as Sid Waddell would say. Sid adored Jocky and was moved by him to utter what is still one of his great lines – “Jocky’s goin’ like a blitzkrieg tonight!!” - as the lovable lump nailed another double 16. The mad passion that led Sid to bracket a fat darts player in an acrylic top and the rampaging Nazi war machine tells you how much fun darts was back then.

It was sport – obviously, because it was on Grandstand - but not as anyone knew it. Jocky was merely one of the less athletic specimens in an era of Fat Bellies and Even Fatter Bellies, none of them looking a good bet to ever qualify for a bus pass. The cameras had to zoom in mighty hard, nearly as much as the “180” money shot, to keep the onstage lagers out of range, and many a game had so much smoke in the air it looked like an early Ultravox video.

I first became a Jocky fan when he made the world final in ’82. To be honest, there was no choice, because his opponent was John Lowe, who always displayed less emotion than a bag of frozen peas. Jocky won and Sid was ecstatic – “They’ll be dancing in the streets of Kirkcaldy tonight!!” He went equally nuts a few years later when Jocky won again, beating Bristow. In between those triumphs Jocky paid a visit to Kettering and I had the honour of shaking his sweaty palm. He had just seen off all comers in an exhibition at the Rising Sun, which I watched whilst trying to make an under-age half last all night.

And it must have been round about then that Jocky appeared on Top of the Pops. Sadly, not to perform his single “Jocky on the Oche”, which sold about 12 copies, but because his image flashed up behind Dexy’s Midnight Runners as they belted out Jackie Wilson Said. An easy mistake to make.

So RIP Jocky. You’ve shuffled off to that great Lakeside Tavern in the sky.


(Not the best of grouping, but it was his birthday.)