BOBBY GEORGE is without doubt the most colourful, charismatic and entertaining player in the history of darts. But what makes him so special is that he didn’t pick up a dart until he was 30 years of age!
However, he might have been a late starter but it didn’t diminish his ability to dazzle all that came before him. Indeed, he literally burst onto the professional darts scene in the late 1970’s with a natural flair and ability to enhance his larger-than-life personality.
In 1976 he won the very first singles event he entered the Hainault Super League Singles, and soon became the dominant force in the Eastern Counties by winning the Essex Masters three years in succession.
Never one to do things by half he reached the Quarter- Finals of the Winmau World Masters in 1977, and won his first major title, the North American Open in 1978.
1979 was to be the year that Bobby George announced that he had arrived as a world-class player, with an incredible victory in the famous News Of The World Championship.
There had never been a more impressive victory before or since, as he became the first and only player to win the title without dropping one single leg of darts! His best of 3-leg televised victories from the Quarter-Finals onwards took him just 93 darts in total (an average of 97) to establish him as a true World Champion.
To prove the point, he beat Leighton Rees, the very first Embassy World Champion in 1978, in the final of the 1979 Butlins Grand Masters. A year later, he successfully defended the prestigious title with a win in the final against Bill Lennard.