Paul Nicholson has launched a new series in which he looks at the best players in BDO history who didn’t make the switch to the PDC.
Many darts players past and present – from the biggest stars to the journeyman pros – started their careers in the BDO system before switching to the PDC in search of riches, the limelight and big TV titles.
However, there are plenty of others who never made that transition, including some big names who surely could have made a huge impact at their peak.
Before we begin this series of players who I think will have thrived in the PDC, it’s important to explain why remaining in the now defunct BDO still had plenty of appeal even when the exodos of talent really started to gain momentum after the turn of the century.
Contrary to popular belief, until more recent years, it was never a guarantee that going to the PDC would make your more money and give you a better living. You’d be working very hard for a living by being in the top 32 of the PDC for many years, let alone being outside of it. You’d have to be in the top 10 to be making major money. I remember in 2008 when Alan Tabern was world number ten and he was still working.
If you’re a big fish in the BDO, it was a risk to go to a more competitive system where you’d also have to pay more money just to play in the events. PDC events cost around £100 per day whereas the BDO entry fees were about £15. That creates more pressure even if the rewards were greater.
The Tour Card era in the PDC only began around 2011, which obviously brought with it a lot more security for players - so before then it would cost everyone around £6000 per year to play in all the events.
The better players in the BDO were earning enough money to be comfortable and you’ve also got to remember they were comfortable with the routine of their trips. They really enjoyed the circuit and how the events were run.
On top of all that there was the massive pride of playing for their country as well, which you didn’t get in the PDC until The World Cup was introduced. There’s so many institutionalised great events which are a big deal to many players wanting to continue their legacy.
Nevertheless, for every player who didn’t cross there’s the inevitable question of ‘do they regret it?’ But the answer to that might be very different depending on who you ask.
Martin Adams
You have to start this series with Martin Adams.
Of all the players who didn’t make the switch he is the greatest champion and most loyal flagbearer for the BDO over the last 20 years.
Everyone in darts agrees that Wolfie would have succeeded if he’d played in the PDC on a full-time basis – even if that had been several years before he won his three Lakeside titles and three World Masters crowns between 2007 and 2011.
Around the turn of the century there used to be competitions which players from any organisation could enter to qualify for PDC majors such as the World Matchplay and World Grand Prix and Martin took advantage of that loophole back in 2001 to reach the semi-finals in Blackpool before making the quarters in Dublin.
We even saw what he still could do in the 2016 Grand Slam of Darts, where he was very popular with the crowd and progressed out of the group stage, so there will always be that glaring ‘what if’ surrounding a career that was underpinned by his commendable levels of loyalty to the BDO.
When you compare Martin’s talent and his continued improvement from 1994 to 2011 with the talent of the crop of PDC players throughout the peak years of his career then I’m pretty sure he’d have picked up majors if he’d come across.
I’m also sure many other darts fans and pundits would say the same.
He was versatile to different formats of the game, like double-start, while he was also a good traveller – as demonstrated by all of his Dutch Open titles – so I also think he’d have thrived on the European Tour.
Even though more and more players were leaving the BDO as he gained his success you can’t really take anything away from his achievements as the standard was still high. There have been many great players who didn’t win the world title once, let alone three times, and they would have had the same amount of chances as Martin did.
Don’t read too much into the lack of 100+ averages at the Lakeside either – it’s always been a very odd phenomenon considering the amount we’ve seen at Ally Pally. Is it down to a lack of exposure to the TV crowd, the venue, the atmosphere? Glen Durrant only managed it once – like Adams did – and look how many times he’s done it since in the PDC majors?!
The practice room at Lakeside was also a packed VIP room and therefore very distracting for players when they were preparing to go out on stage. In the PDC majors, the practice rooms are private where you can focus properly and that has to be something to do with it.
Overall, I don’t want this to take any shine off what Wolfie achieved in the BDO because he’ll always be remembered as an all-time great, I just think it’s a shame we didn’t see him more often in televised darts.
However, I honestly don’t think he regrets not making the switch in his career, even in light of what eventually happened to the BDO. His affiliation goes much further back to his England shirts, his amazing fans and Olly Croft.
The only regret he may have is that he didn’t bank as much money as he could have because based on his talent, his career earnings deserve to be doubled at least.
Tony O’Shea
I think everyone knows how popular Tony is and there’s no doubt his ability level would have served him very well in the PDC system had he chosen to move across, especially in the pre-Tour Card era.
But much like Martin Adams, he loved wearing his England shirt and that’s why he ultimately stayed.
When it comes to his results, you’d have to ask him what his biggest achievement is because there are glaring holes in his career and he’s almost the Terry Jenkins of the BDO.
He lost all seven of his major finals including three at the Lakeside from 2009 to 2013, two in the World Masters (2004, 2012) and once apiece in the World Darts Trophy (2002) and International Darts League (2005).
There’s a lot he didn’t manage to win but doesn’t take away from just how talented a player he was during his peak years, and the players who beat him on those occasions - Tony David, Mervyn King (twice), Ted Hankey, Christian Kist, Stephen Bunting and Scott Waites - were obviously top-class opposition.
At the turn of the century, many still felt the BDO had better talent overall and although the tipping point came around 2001, it was still a very high standard.
Tony would probably say he doesn’t have any regrets about not moving earlier in his career – mainly because of playing for England – but that hasn’t stopped him trying to crack Q School on multiple occasions in recent times.
If only he was the player he once was, particularly between 2002 and 2010, then he’d be pretty high up the rankings, let alone earning a Tour Card!
I’m pretty sure he would have won PDC titles back then but would they have been majors? Possibly not considering he couldn’t get the job done in the big BDO finals but he’d definitely have given the likes of Phil Taylor, John Part, James Wade, Adrian Lewis and Terry Jenkins a real run for their money.
He’d also have been a brilliant addition to the Premier League line-up in those times and rocked every single venue across the UK.
We’ll predominantly look back on his career for the popularity he had with the crowd, and you only have to look at his walk-ons and receptions he got during his Grand Slam of Darts appearances from 2009 to 2014 to see how much the PDC fans also loved him.
He reached the quarter-finals on two of those occasions – losing to Phil Taylor and Robert Thornton – so that’s more evidence to suggest he could have comfortably cut it at the top.
Anyone who has seen him at exhibitions will know how popular he is while he also has the charisma to conduct the crowd with his little finger – and darts has always needed characters like this.
He’ll look back on his career with fond memories but would have loved a proper crack at the PDC a bit like Ted Hankey did, albeit not being successful. That was proof in itself that the PDC isn’t for everyone.
Darryl Fitton
Darryl once asked me at Lakeside a few years ago if I was going to Q School and after I said yes, he replied “I think I’ve missed my window.”
He even admitted to regretting his missed said window and while he’s still an excellent player now, I think he accepts his best chance of ever making it in the PDC has gone.
Darryl is very similar to fellow Stockport legend Tony O’Shea in the sense he had a big walk-on, a great character for the game and very popular with the fans and players alike.
He also had some great runs at the World Championship and although unlike Tony he never reached a Lakeside final, he did win a big major at the BDO World Trophy in 2016 and once won a car with a nine-darter at the Dutch Open Darts.
In 2016 he also qualified from the group stage of the Grand Slam of Darts alongside Phil Taylor for the second time in four attempts, so I really think he and Tony could have both thrived in PDC company on a regular basis.
If one of them had switched I reckon the other would have followed, so maybe they should have done it together.
Back in 2009, Gary Anderson moved from the BDO to the PDC and at that time he was seriously close with Gary Robson on a friendship and ability level – much like O’Shea and Fitton. But the latter decided to stay.
As Anderson’s career sky rocketed and benefited massively from a consistently higher quality of opposition, Robson’s almost plateaued.
If you think O’Shea and Fitton did more in the BDO system than Robson managed and were on a similar standing to Anderson, then a move to the PDC around 2010 could have paid off handsomely.
Incidentally at the Lakeside in 2009, O’Shea beat Anderson 5-3 in the quarter-finals and then edged out Fitton 6-4 in the semis only to lose agonisingly 7-6 to Ted Hankey. Meanwhile Robson was pipped 5-4 by Martin Adams in the quarter-final! They all had a window around that time and only Anderson decided to join.
Trina Gulliver
I bet you didn’t expect to see this name on the list! However, at the turn of the century Trina Gulliver was one of the best players in the world, regardless of gender.
I saw Trina for the very first time in the year 2000 for a county match between Northumberland and Warwickshire and I asked my friend ‘who’s that lady over there?’
He replied: “That’s the best lady player on the planet.”
After that I constantly looked for her results in the Darts World magazine and she really was unbeatable in women’s darts back then. I then saw an article in the same magazine which showed that she had the best county average of the month out of anyone in the country – from both the mens and women’s games.
That for me was the proof that she could have gone on and mixed it with the very best in the PDC, especially with the benefit of regular competition against the top men as we’ve seen happen with Lisa Ashton’s improvement over the last couple of seasons.
She’ll always be remembered as the greatest female player of all time with 10 world titles and countless other honours but she did have the opportunity to be the first real trailblazer in the PDC.
Interestingly, the BDO only launched the women’s world title in 2001 but had they not done that, I wonder if Trina would have left the BDO to give the PDC a shot.
For her to do that, she’d only have needed to pay her membership to the PDPA. Back then in the pre Q-School days, there were only two questions you needed to answer: Have you got the money to pay for competition entry, travel and accommodation? And, do you have the talent?
There were players in the past who weren’t good enough, but they had the money to give it a crack. Ultimately they’d have probably made a loss because you’d need to win about three matches per day to win your entry fee in prize money.
The biggest problem for women’s darts is that their prize money has always been pittance, especially when Trina was multiple world champion and even up to around 2016.
There was never a big enough sponsor who’d throw money at it and the BDO never marketed them properly. For Trina to earn the money she deserved, she needed to take the financial risk of moving to the PDC, but I think she had the talent for it to pay off.
Her financial dilemma would have been ‘am I still making more money winning all these titles in the BDO than I could paying to play against men in the PDC?’
All that said, by staying with the BDO she won all those majors and sealed a lifetime legacy, while her impact on women’s darts earned her an MBE and that will mean more to her than anything.
I just wish she’d given it a try like Anastasia Dobromyslova did for a couple of years in 2009. Her gamble didn’t pay off but Gulliver could have caused some upsets.
I won’t go as far as saying she could have rivalled Phil Taylor to be the very best – but we’ve seen plenty of examples of how the best lady players can be more than a match for the top men.
