Why they rank here
The player who made darts a television sport. The Crafty Cockney won five world championships in 1980, 1981, 1984, 1985 and 1986 from ten world finals, five Winmau World Masters and two News of the World titles, and dominated the boom years so completely that his defeats became more famous than his victories — Keith Deller's 138 checkout to beat him 6-5 in the 1983 final is still the sport's best-known moment. He was the first darts player recognisable to people who never watched darts: chalk-white shirt, little finger cocked, an arrogance he cultivated deliberately because it sold tickets. Dartitis struck at the peak of his powers in the mid-1980s and he never won another world title, though he reached the finals of 1989, 1990 and 1991 while fighting it. He then bankrolled a young Stoke potter named Phil Taylor, who beat him in the 1990 final. No player has been more consequential for the sport's commercial existence.
Career profile
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