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Darts big boozers vodka pints, stage fall, alcohol 'swimming in brain' and tragic death

Darts' relationship with booze is very different these days - but there was time where players downed pints at the oche as Daily Star Sport has a look at the sport's biggest boozers

[Darts players used to booze at the oche]

Darts players used to booze at the oche(Image: Graham Chadwick/Daily Mail/Shutterstock)

Darts has a very different relationship with alcohol compared to the sport's first heyday in the 1980s.

Back then, seeing a player with a pint at the oche during a big match was as common as seeing Luke Littler nail double 10 today. That was mild compared to the drinking culture away from the oche.

Far from being frowned upon, players' exploits with alcohol were celebrated and boasted about. Here's a look back on some of the sport's biggest boozers and what they got up to

Jocky Wilson

[Jockey Wilson]

Jockey Wilson was one of the great drinkers in the darting world(Image: Kevin Holt/Daily Mail/Shutterstock)

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The man all other darts boozers are measured against. The two-time world champion, also a heavy smoker, confessed to consuming seven or eight vodkas to settle his nerves before a match.

While on the oche, he would often drink pints of vodka disguised as Coke. He usually disguised his drinking well, except on one notorious occasion when he fell off the stage drunk after a match at the 1984 World Championship.

Therefore, he was dismayed when the BDO banned smoking on stage in 1987 and then alcohol the following year. But it didn't derail his game entirely as he won his second and final world title in 1989. Wilson died in 2012 at the age of 62.

Eric Bristow

[The 'Crafty Cockney' played hard and partied even harder]

The 'Crafty Cockney' played hard and partied even harder(Image: Colorsport/Shutterstock)

The 'Crafty Cockney' played hard and partied harder - except when it came to a big tournament.

Writing in his autobiography, Bristow, who died after suffering a heart attack in 2018, said: "I'm a boozer, I like a drink, and I have drunk with the best. But when it came to an important darts tournament, I'd say no.

I wouldn't get drunk in the week leading up to the tournament. And I know when to stop." Except on one occasion

Cliff Lazerenko

[Cliff Lazerenko]

Cliff Lazerenko had the edge over Eric Bristow at the bar(Image: Mirrorpix)

One of Bristow's biggest rivals on the oche was Lazerenko. While he generally fell short against the Crafty Cockney on the oche, he certainly had the edge at the bar, and once during a long-haul flight.

Bristow wrote: "Big Cliff, as he is known, is a two-time winner of the British Open and a four-times World Championship semi-finalist, but perhaps his biggest claim to fame is his prodigious drinking ability.

"Cliff caught me on my way to the Canadian Open with him. It was 24 hours I'll never forget but find hard to remember. We'd been upgraded to first class, sitting in luxury for the 12-hour flight, and the champagne came out.

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"I already knew I was going to be in a bit of trouble because we'd had four or five pints in the airport bar. But off we went, and it was champagne, champagne, champagne. They ran out. We'd gone through all 12 bottles on board.

"So Cliff starts ordering drink after drink after drink. Cointreau, Bailey's on ice, then Southern Comfort. All I could think when the plane touched down was, 'How the hell was I going to get through customs?' because I was smashed.

"I could feel the alcohol literally swimming around my brain."

Andy Fordham

[Andy Fordham admitted to drinking a crate of beer before matches]

Andy Fordham admitted to drinking a crate of beer before matches(Image: ITV/Shutterstock)

The beloved Viking admitted to drinking a crate of beer before matches.

Once weighing in at 31st, he conceded that a poor diet and his drinking habits were the reason for his health issues, which culminated in him collapsing at the 2007 BDO World Championship and being diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver.

His condition was severe enough to bring on a minor stroke, which saw him spend three weeks in hospital.

The 2004 BDO world champion took a break from darts after this ordeal and lost 17 stone. He continued to play until 2018, but his long health battle saw him die from organ failure at the age of 59 in 2021.

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