Sid Waddell

Chat and Gossip About Professional Darts and The More Farcical Successors To The BDO
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Sid Waddell

Post by Justin Credible » Sun Aug 12, 2012 1:37 pm

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Re: Sid Waddell

Post by Justin Credible » Sun Aug 12, 2012 1:37 pm

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Re: Sid Waddell

Post by martin71109 » Sun Aug 12, 2012 1:43 pm

just seen he has sadly passed away, RIP sid and a sad day for darts fans

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Re: Sid Waddell

Post by Justin Credible » Sun Aug 12, 2012 1:44 pm

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Re: Sid Waddell

Post by M H » Sun Aug 12, 2012 4:05 pm

He was a pioneer in darts many years back but pissed us all off with his tongue up Taylor's arse after. Rest in peace SID I wont miss you on the comms
When you actually feel anger over a place like this it's time to get a life

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Re: Sid Waddell

Post by Justin Credible » Mon Aug 13, 2012 2:31 pm

"He Was Our Top Dog"
12 Aug 2012

TRIBUTES have poured in for Sid Waddell, who died on Saturday evening aged 72.

The legendary darts commentator lost his battle with cancer almost a year after first being diagnosed, and leading figures from the darts world have been remembering the man known as the 'Voice of Darts'.

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Barry Hearn, PDC Chairman

It's terrible news and our thoughts go out to Irene and his family. Sid was the Voice of Darts and we wouldn't be where we are today without him.
He was such a major part of darts, a really nice fellow who no-one had a bad word about.
He was wonderful to listen to, with his university education he was tremendously intelligent and whether it was Greek mythology or Marxism he always found a way of pulling a quote out relating to a darts match.
He's up there with the legendary commentators in sport and he kept his passion for darts with him every time he went in to the commentary box.
He was totally unique and brought that excitement in to people's living rooms to add to the entertainment that the players created.
He had so much respect for the players and hated that snobbishness that some people looked down on darts with - he brought the game in to the 21st century.
He was fun to be around, you never saw him down and he looked forward to every match as it was the most important thing in his life. He loved life and whether it was writing or broadcasting he lived it 100 percent and gave it 100 percent.
We will mark Sid's memory appropriately to ensure he lives on in darts long in to the future.

Eric Bristow, five time World Champion

Sid was part of our history, he's been there since the beginning in 1973. He was fun and crazy and people loved listening to him.
There will never be another Sid, he was a one-off - so excitable and hyperactive, when you were commentating with him you'd have to turn your microphone off he'd make you laugh so much.
Every sport has a great commentator and he was ours, he was our top dog and we will all miss him so much.

Barney Francis, Managing Director, Sky Sports

We will all remember Sid's wonderful words, his great sense of humour and his passion for the sport he loved.
Sid was a friend to all of us at Sky Sports, at the heart of our darts coverage since the early 1990s. He was a wonderful man and we will all miss him deeply.
Our thoughts are with him and his family at this sad time.



Dave Clark, Presenter, Sky Sports

Everybody used to fight to get in to the commentary box with Sid. There was a memorable moment when he was commentating with Stephen Fry at the Premier League Final and he asked Stephen Fry if he was enjoying it - he turned to him and said: "Sid, I'm like a pig in Chardonnay."
Sid was loved by us all, he was a one-off, a genius and so much fun to be around. He made the world a brighter place and it's heartbreaking that he's gone.

Meanwhile, players and fans alike have been tweeting their sympathies and favourite Sid memories.
Wayne Rooney, Piers Morgan and John Prescott are amongst the thousands of people sending messages of condolence.
You can read them all on the @officialPDC twitter page and leave your own messages there or on our Facebook page.
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Re: Sid Waddell

Post by Justin Credible » Sun Aug 19, 2012 9:07 pm

interest obituary here

http://www.independent.ie/obituaries/si ... 03576.html



Miner's son and Cambridge scholar who became the colourful voice of darts on television

Sid Waddell, who died last Saturday the day after his 72nd birthday, was one of the greatest sports commentators of his generation, an achievement made all the more remarkable because his descriptive fireworks graced what, to many, was hardly a sport at all: darts.

If anything, this only added to the allure of Waddell's bravura patter, which depended on yoking two contrasting idioms to form expostulations at once ludicrous and inspired. Thus: "When Alexander of Macedonia was 33 he cried salt tears because there were no more worlds to conquer. [Eric] Bristow is only 27."

Other historical notables, from Milton to Wittgenstein, were called on to elucidate the huge achievements of, say, 20-stone "Big" Cliff Lazarenko ("If Cliff gets back in this, it will be the greatest comeback since Lazarus") or Phil "The Power" Taylor ("William Tell could take an apple off your head, Taylor could take out a processed pea").

Waddell's effusiveness in moments of excitement could lead to some equally delightful malapropisms ("the crowd is sitting on the end of their tenterhooks") and the odd gaffe: "There's only one word for that -- magic darts." Waddell would maintain that such solecisms were intentional.

If the content of these Waddellisms was breathtaking ("I am the Jackson Pollock of the commentary box"), it was the volume at which they were delivered that drew the biggest gasps. Waddell described his style as "like a banshee with piles".

His 30-year career amounted to a tireless campaign on behalf of an activity even he would concede amounted to "fat men throwing things at the wall". But his proselytising zeal was aided by the emergence of Phil Taylor, a player of sublime talent and 15 times the world champion.

Nothing incensed Waddell more than the idea that "The Power" was anything other than a genius. "The idea that he is anything other than one of the greatest British sportsmen of all time doesn't exist for me," Waddell insisted. "It's a control of the metal that no one has come anywhere near."

Sidney Waddell was born on August 10, 1940 in Alnwick, Northumberland, and raised in a colliery cottage at Lynemouth, near Ashington. He was a miner's son -- the Waddells had worked the pits near Bedlington since the mid-19th century -- but his parents were determined that Sid would not work down the pits.

Instead, he attended Morpeth Grammar, and won a scholarship to Cambridge to study Modern History. At both school and university he was a keen sportsman: he played rugby as a colt for Northumberland, won the 100-yard dash for Northumberland and Durham against Scotland in 1957 and played football as a winger for Lynemouth Juniors, which at the time was a feeder team for West Ham United. He also dabbled with mixed lacrosse, and was a lifelong Newcastle United fan.

Unfortunately, he was also injury-prone, and as sprinting and then rugby proved beyond him, he turned his attentions to the less strenuous sport of darts. At Cambridge he instigated the first ever inter-collegiate darts championship. The low point came in 1962 when he led his St John's team to defeat against four trainee vicars from Selwyn College.

After Cambridge, he pursued a research degree at Durham, and while there he formed a duo, The Gravyboatmen, who toured working men's clubs. Dressed in sunglasses and fisherman's smocks, Waddell (on vocals) and Charles Hall (on guitar) performed satirical ditties, with responses varying from bemusement to open hostility.

Waddell was tone-deaf and Hall had mastered only two chords, and their musical career came to an end at the South Bank Sporting Club, from which they were escorted for their own safety.

Waddell won a playwriting competition, which encouraged him to move away from the academic life and into TV, joining Granada as a researcher in 1965.

Jobs as a producer with Tyne Tees and Yorkshire followed. It was with the latter that Waddell worked on Indoor League, a show that featured less athletic sports -- table football, shove ha'penny and arm-wrestling. But it was soon recognised that darts was the prime attraction.

Waddell joined the BBC in Manchester in 1974. When, in 1977, the broadcaster began covering darts, Waddell's knowledge and enthusiasm made him the obvious (perhaps only) choice to commentate, and from 1978 he was at every British Darts Organisation world championship, eventually covering 16 consecutive BDO events.

When a faction of players formed the World Darts Council in 1994, Waddell moved to Sky. Asked for his views on the schism, he said: "I'm not daft and neither are Sky. All the big box office boys are now with the WDC, and Sky has the major events. I would rather commentate on Newcastle United than Blyth Spartans."

Despite the split, Waddell was not finished at the BBC, which hired him in 1999 to announce the winning numbers for its Saturday night National Lottery show. His comeback was short-lived -- the show was panned by critics and Waddell was axed after one appearance. There was a suggestion that viewers could not understand his accent.

Apart from darts, Waddell commentated on pool, clay-pigeon shooting and tenpin bowling. Although none attracted ratings of any note, they were delectable, often hilarious cameos.

Waddell was a prolific scriptwriter. Jossy's Giants, which first aired in 1986 on the BBC, was a children's TV show that was followed by more than six million viewers.

He was particularly close to Jocky Wilson, the two-time world champion who died a recluse earlier this year. Behind Phil Taylor, he rated Raymond van Barneveld the greatest player he had seen.

About his own "tungsten talent", Waddell was modest, saying: "I used to play a lot with my wife and another couple, but it was a case of diminishing returns. At the end of the second pint, I was deadly. By the end of the third, diminishing returns set in."

Sid Waddell and his wife, Irene, had five children.
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Re: Sid Waddell

Post by Justin Credible » Wed Aug 22, 2012 11:36 pm

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Re: Sid Waddell

Post by gumbo2176 » Wed Jun 05, 2013 5:35 pm

As an American, it took me a while to follow what Sid was going on about during much of his commentary. His rapid fire delivery and off the wall comments often left me shaking my head wondering what I had just heard. But, you could not deny his enthusiasm for the game.

One of my favorite Sid moments was when I was sitting at my computer with a cup of coffee watching a match and one of the players had a bit of a meltdown on stage. Sid took the opportunity to make this comment----"It looks as though he's thrown the rattle from the pram." I spit coffee all over my monitor.

Can you imagine how Sid would have called the recent match when MVG came within a wire of hitting back to back 9 darters. His voice would likely still be echoing in the venue.

He was a true fan and ambassador to the game of darts.
Last edited by gumbo2176 on Wed Jun 05, 2013 6:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Sid Waddell

Post by Justin Credible » Wed Jun 05, 2013 5:57 pm

was watching the show dart tarts before loading it on my site a while back and was thinking how much an icon he was.

no other commentator had his passion for the game I believe, and a very intelligent man on the game, in his latter years he did the taylor slurping a bit much but it can be argued Sid was rightfully aware that he was /is the greatest player that will ever be.


I would have him up there with bristow , anderson, jockey etc as the legends of darts, some achievement considering he was not a player as such
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Re: Sid Waddell

Post by Justin Credible » Sun Aug 11, 2013 5:34 pm

One Year today since his death............
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Re: Sid Waddell

Post by Justin Credible » Mon Aug 11, 2014 10:41 am

2 years today since he died

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Re: Sid Waddell

Post by M H » Mon Aug 11, 2014 1:43 pm

Time flies
When you actually feel anger over a place like this it's time to get a life

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Re: Sid Waddell

Post by ChrisW » Fri Aug 29, 2014 10:18 pm

Great man , will be missed.

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Re: Sid Waddell

Post by Cameron » Fri Sep 12, 2014 2:51 am

polarbear70 wrote:Great man , will be missed.
Hear hear.

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Re: Sid Waddell

Post by Justin Credible » Tue Aug 11, 2015 6:35 pm

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Re: Sid Waddell

Post by Justin Credible » Mon May 23, 2016 1:00 pm

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Re: Sid Waddell

Post by Justin Credible » Thu Jun 09, 2016 2:50 pm

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Re: Sid Waddell

Post by don-logan » Fri Aug 12, 2016 12:04 pm

4 years already and in these 4 years we've have nothing but shite commentary.

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Re: Sid Waddell

Post by M H » Fri Aug 12, 2016 4:16 pm

don-logan wrote:4 years already and in these 4 years we've have nothing but shite commentary.
Was shite for the four years before he died. To be honest it amazed me how he could talk so much being so far up Taylor's arse
When you actually feel anger over a place like this it's time to get a life

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