Darts Career
After the early exposure on Indoor League, Rees turned professional in 1976 and went on to make the final of that year's News of the World Darts Championship. He was also part of the 1977 Wales team that won the very first World Darts Federation World Cup.
Rees' finest hour however would come in 1978 at the inaugural Embassy World Professional Darts Championship, in Nottingham. Seeded third he easily dispensed with Australian Barry Atkinson in round one at a score of 6-0 before taking on his close friend, Welsh team-mate and fifth seed Alan Evans in the second round. It turned into a classic with both players averaging over 90 per three darts (almost unheard of in those days). Evans took an early lead with a couple of 180s before Rees recorded the championship's first ever ten-dart finish (also the first ever televised) before eventually running out a 6-3 victor. At the time the BBC's executive producer Nick Hunter proclaimed it as the match that made darts live up to all their expectations and cemented it as a National TV item for years to come.
In the semi-final Rees actually struggled to beat a determined American, Nicky Virachkul 8-7 in the semi-finals but showed a whole different set of battling qualities to pull through into a final against the great John Lowe. Rees would again average over 90 with Lowe not far behind in a great final, eventually sealed 11-7 by Rees to win his only ever World Championship.
In the defence of his title in 1979, Rees returned to the final, again beating Evans along the way before this time losing to Lowe by 5 sets to 0. A quarter-final in 1980 and a last-16 place in 1981 followed, after which Rees could only manage round one exits in 1982, 1983, 1985 and 1990. Despite this his matches nearly always resulted in full arenas and he remained one of darts most popular competitors.
It is because of this that he is credited alongside the likes of Lowe, Eric Bristow, Bob Anderson, Jocky Wilson, Cliff Lazarenko and now Phil Taylor as bringing darts to the masses via the television screens. He had an exceptionally good record on Bullseye, frequently scoring more than 301 with nine darts and thus having his charity money doubled.
Rees also wrote autobiographical account of his life in 1979, titled “On Darts” which also featured tips on playing the game.
Read more about this topic: Leighton Rees
Famous quotes containing the words darts and/or career:
“As many as the shells that are on the shore, so many are
the pains of love; the darts that wound are steeped in
much poison.”
—Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso)
“I’ve been in the twilight of my career longer than most people have had their career.”
—Martina Navratilova (b. 1956)