Jocky Wilson

Jocky Wilson
Jockywilsons.jpg
Personal information
Full name	John Thomas Wilson
Nickname	Jocky
Born
Home town	Kirkcaldy, Fife
Darts information
Playing darts since	1979
Darts	-
Laterality	Right-handed
Organisation (see split in darts)
BDO	1979 to 1993
PDC	1993 to 1995
Current world ranking	N/A
WDF major events – best performances
World Ch'ship	Winner 1982, 1989
World Masters	Runner-up 1982, 1990
PDC premier events – best performances
World Ch'ship	Group stages 1994, 1995
World Matchplay	Quarter Finals 1994
Other tournament wins
Tournament	Years
British Professional British Open Finland Open WDF Europe Cup Team event Autumn Gold Masters BBC2 Bullseye Darts Championship	1981, 1983, 1986, 1988 1982 1986 1978 1984 1980, 1981
Other achievements
Denmark Open Pairs Winner 1981, 1983, 1984
Updated on 17 January 2007.

John Thomas Wilson (born 22 March 1950 in Kirkcaldy, Fife) known as "Jocky" Wilson, is a former Scottish darts champion. He retired from the game in 1995.

Wilson was twice World professional Darts Champion in 1982 and 1989. A contemporary and rival of Eric Bristow, Bob Anderson and John Lowe, Wilson won many titles in his career including the British Professional Championship a record four times between 1981 and 1988, as well as the prestigious British Open and Matchplay titles.

Early life

Wilson had been a coal delivery man and also a miner at Kirkcaldy's Seafield Colliery. However, it was a spell of unemployment which was to prove the catalyst to Jocky achieving darting greatness. While on the dole, Jocky entered a darts competition at Butlins in Ayr in 1979, which he went on to win, claiming a grand prize of £500.

His success at this tournament convinced him that he should turn professional as darts was beginning to become popular on television and the World Championship was in its infancy.

Greatest achievements

His greatest achievements came in the World Championships, first in 1982 where he beat Lowe 5-3 in the final, and then seven years later, when he beat his other great rival Bristow 6-4 in a classic match, where Bristow had recovered from 5-0 down to find himself at 5-4 and 2-2 in the tenth set. This was to be the Scot's last taste of success in a major event although the odd final appearance still came over the next few years.

His record at the World Championship was one of great consistency. From his debut in 1979 until 1991 he managed to reach at least the quarter-finals on every single occasion. He was quarter-finalist eight times (1979, 1980, 1981, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1991) and three-times a losing semi-finalist (1983, 1984, 1987) in addition to his two World titles. In 1992 and 1993 he suffered first round defeats for the only time at the Lakeside Country Club.

Darts split

Wilson joined the other top professionals who split away from the ruling British Darts Organisation in 1993 to form the WDC (now Professional Darts Corporation). He was never able to recapture the form that took him to two world championships. He never won a single match in the PDC World Championship in which he only participated twice. He lost both group games in 1994 (to Dennis Priestley and Graeme Stoddart) and again in 1995 (to Priestley and Lowe).

He did reach the final of the WDC Lada Classic in 1993, one of the very early tournaments during the acrimonious split. He lost that final to Mike Gregory. Wilson also reached the quarter-finals of the 1994 World Matchplay, losing to eventual champion Larry Butler.

But his final appearance in a televised tournament came in the 1995 World Matchplay. He beat Rod Harrington 8-7 in the first round, but lost to Nigel Justice in the second round. Wilson never appeared in a major televised event again.

Personal life

Wilson was sometimes controversial, occasionally outspoken, but always extremely popular with darts fans who loved his honest approach and natural talent.

In 1982, Wilson was banned from competing in darts tournaments after he allegedly threw a punch at an official during a championship. This was taken as a reaction to Jocky being under intense pressure at the time of the Falklands War, as he was married to an Argentine woman named Malvina (the Argentine name for the Falkland Islands is "Islas Malvinas"). He was soon allowed back into professional competitions again.

In 1989 he released a record "Jocky on the oche" but it failed to spark the public imagination and is reputed to have sold just 850 copies.

Jocky and Malvina have two sons, John and William and one daughter Anne Marie.

• Wilson was a constant sweet-eater and generally refused to brush his teeth - "my Gran told me the English poison the water" - he had lost his last tooth by the age of 28. Following his 1982 World title win, he paid £1,200 for dentures, but never took to them. They made him belch when drinking, he complained.

After retirement

Wilson never formally announced his retirement from darts; he just departed from darts suddenly on the 23rd December 1995.

Jocky had been a heavy drinker and his lifestyle contributed to the onset of diabetes in 1995. For ten years during his darts career he had a house in Wallsend to cut down on travel expenses, but he left that to return to his home town of Kirkcaldy. Within two years, he was declared bankrupt, and now survives on disability allowance, living as a recluse in a one-bedroom flat back on the council estate where he grew up.

In 1996 he said, "I don't want anyone feeling sorry for me. There's only one person to blame for the situation I'm in, and that's me."

He no longer gives interviews to the press and television. An Observer reporter tried to interview Jocky in January 2007 on the 25th anniversary of his first title win to be told by his wife, "He never has (given an interview) since stopping and never will. He thinks it's all in the past, it's over with."

Despite Jocky's withdrawal from the game, in August 2009, the PDC announced a new tournament called 'The Jocky Wilson Cup' in which Scotland's best played England's best. England beat Scotland 6-0 in the inaugural Jocky Wilson Cup in December 2009.

A heavy smoker for forty years, in November 2009 it was announced that he had been diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

World Championship results

BDO

• 1979: Quarter Final (lost to John Lowe 1-3)
• 1980: Quarter Final (lost to Eric Bristow 0-3)
• 1981: Quarter Final (lost to Tony Brown 2-4)
• 1982: Winner (beat John Lowe 5-3)
• 1983: 3rd place (beat Tony Brown 2-0; lost in Semi Final to Keith Deller 3-5)
• 1984: Semi Final (lost to Dave Whitcombe 5-6)
• 1985: Quarter Final (lost to Dave Whitcombe 3-4)
• 1986: Quarter Final (lost to Dave Whitcombe 2-4)
• 1987: Semi Final (lost to John Lowe 0-5)
• 1988: Quarter Final (lost to Eric Bristow 2-4)
• 1989: Winner (beat Eric Bristow 6-4)
• 1990: Quarter Final (lost to Mike Gregory 3-4)
• 1991: Quarter Final (lost to Kevin Kenny 3-4)
• 1992: First round (lost to Kevin Kenny 1-3)
• 1993: First round (lost to Dennis Priestley 0-3)

PDC

• 1994: Group Stage (lost both group games to Dennis Priestley and Graeme Stoddart)
• 1995: Group Stage (lost both group games to Dennis Priestley and John Lowe)

In popular culture

• In one famous incident in 1982 his picture was displayed on Top of the Pops during a performance of "Jackie Wilson Said (I'm in Heaven When You Smile)" by Dexys Midnight Runners, apparently an in-joke on the part of the production staff.
• Jocky was one of the first sports people to have a computer game created after him. Published by Zeppelin Games, "Jocky Wilson's Darts Challenge" (1988) and later "Jocky Wilson's Darts Compendium" (1991) were created for several different home computer systems.

• One of the suites in the fictional Phoenix Club (as seen in Phoenix Nights) was named after Jocky Wilson.

References

• "A Sporting Nation" - article from bbc.co.uk
• Jocky's dart out of the shadows The Scotsman, 17 March 2001
• DartsDatabase profile and stats