Rod's top characters

Darts is full of characters... Rod Harrington names six of the sport's biggest personalities.

Who are the greatest characters in darts history?

"You need characters in the game of darts." That's the view of Sky Sports expert and former world number one Rod Harrington, who says big personalities have always attracted spectators to the sport. But who are the characters who have defined the game? Which larger than life figures have stood above the rest? Here, in no particular order, are Rod's top six characters from darts history...

Peter Manley

He was the boo boy of the Premier League and he knew how to handle it. He would walk on like a bit of a pantomime and while the crowd loved the dart player Peter Manley, they loved to boo him as well. It worked for all of the other players because Manley became the guy who got all the boos and that took some of the pressure off them. With the size of the crowds in the Premier League you need someone like that. He loved a bit of gamesmanship. He tried it on me several times in the early nineties when he came on the scene and he famously made Adrian Lewis walk off the stage at the Circus Tavern once. When the adrenaline is pumping, you do things that you later think were a bit over the top. But that's what single sports are all about. In a rugby scrum you don't get people saying: "How are you, how's your mother?" They say much worse things about your mother! That goes on in darts as well, but not as much now as it used to.

Wayne Mardle

You need people like this in the game. He was great with the crowd and they loved him every time he walked on the oche with his 'Hawaii 5-0' theme music, the loud shirts and the inflatables. Like Manley he's not in the game at the moment and we won't see him playing at Alexandra Palace - although he has popped into the Sky Sports commentary box. He came close to qualifying but couldn't quite make it. Hopefully he'll be back playing soon.

Jocky Wilson

I've got to mention him. He had unbelievable ability and as a character he was up there with the best of them. In the early days you had him going at it with Alan Evans and Eric Bristow and it was hilarious to see the banter and the aggression that went on between them three. He once threw a dart at my stomach. I used to do a trick where I'd stand by the dartboard and someone would throw a dart, which I would proceed to catch. I had pretty quick hands you see. Myself and Eric were in Ireland and we showed this trick to the Guinness people - I caught all three of Eric's darts - but then Jocky walked up and said "catch this then". He then chucked it straight into my stomach. It was comical, but you're left thinking: "What did you do that for?" He was a very passionate Scotsman and I remember him walking on stage as Scotland captain and kicking Eric in the shins, drawing blood. That was Jocky all over, a right character. He was a great player too - I once saw him do 1,001 in 19 darts, which is the lowest I've ever seen.

Eric Bristow

He was larger than life. He was the first celebrity in darts and is still possibly bigger than Phil Taylor. He was a very abrupt person, who was fine if you got on with him but you couldn't talk to him if you didn't. He was always causing confrontations because he wouldn't mince his words. If he didn't like you he would tell you. He was great for the sport in his day and brought it forward. He was so brash and so good, people remember him. He used to go up to people and tell them he would thrash them - and then he'd go and back up what he'd said. That made him a larger than life character.

Cliff Lazarenko

He wasn't so much a character on the board, but off the board he definitely was. He was like the father figure for all of the darts players. You'd never see him get angry, he was a friend to everyone and if anyone stepped out of line it was normally Cliff's hand on your shoulder. You only ever had a drink with Cliff once... because it took you three days to get over it. I won the Swedish Open back in the early nineties and we celebrated after by drinking White Russians. I don't remember what happened after that. Cliff took me to my room apparently... and I think I was home in bed in England before I sobered up! He was a friend to everybody, nobody had a bad word to say about him and he never had a bad word about anybody else. He was an extremely good dart player, a real gentleman and a real character.

Alan Evans

The little Welsh terrier was another very passionate darts player and on his day he was possibly the best treble-20 hitter that the game has ever had and the only reason he never won a World Championship was because he missed a lot of doubles. He used to hit 180's for fun and he was similar to Jocky in size and stature. There was always fireworks whenever he played, especially when he was representing his country, and was one of the great breed of Welsh players. He was a real character. When he, Eric and Jocky got at it in the home internationals, the banter was priceless. You'd pay thousands of pounds to see what I suppose you'd call aggressive camaraderie. They were great friends really, but he and Eric did fall out at times. I remember Eric calling him "the mad little Welshman" on TV many years ago. He was a smaller than life character I suppose!