On March 24th 2012, just two days after his 62nd birthday Scotland lost a legend when John Thomas "Jocky" Wilson passed away at his home in at Kirkcaldy.
Jocky spent most of his early life in orphanages after it was deemed his mother and father were unfit to bring him up, his jobs included a couple of years in the army, a coal delivery man, fish processor, and also a miner at Kirkcaldy's Seafield Colliery. He also worked for a time at the Lister Bar, the local where a 19-year-old Wilson first learned to play darts, he never thought when throwing those first arrows that he would ever become the champion of the world and a Scottish legend.
From his debut at the World Championship in 1979 until 1991, Wilson managed to reach at least the quarter-finals of the tournament on every occasion. Wilson also lifted the British Professional Championship four-times between 1981 and 1988, as well as the British Open and Matchplay titles.
Wilson was also generous with his time for charity and had a neat line in self-deprecation. He was known as 'Gumsy' because his constant sweet-eating and refusal to brush his teeth - 'my Gran told me the English poison the water' - meant that he had lost his last tooth by the age of 28. Following the 1982 triumph, Wilson paid £1,200 for dentures. But he never took to them. They made him belch when drinking, he complained. And once, celebrating a victory, they flew out of his mouth and on to the oche. In the end, they were employed as a ball marker in pool games with Bristow.
'People might think that having no teeth snookers you when it comes to eating,' Wilson wrote in his 1983 autobiography, Jocky. 'But I can manage just about anything with my gums. I can chew a steak provided it's well done. I can even eat apples. Great Yarmouth rock and nuts are the only two things that defeat me.'
Other tales include the time he kicked Bristow's shin before they were due to play each other - the Crafty Cockney, who became Wilson's firm friend, was forced to shake hands on stage with a bleeding shin. And after one defeat he fell off the stage.
Sadly after being diagnosed with diabetes Jocky gave it all up, he became bankrupt and spent the remainder of his life, with his Argentinian wife, Malvina in a council flat in the town he grew up in, as virtual recluse, shielded by his wife when visitors knocked on his door, be it journalists or just well wisher fans nobody got through the door.
I will always remember the early days of television darts and Wee Jocky, at the oche, a true character. When he won his first world title at Jollees Cabaret Club in Stoke, Sid Waddell announced him as "Jocky Wilson , The lad has the psychology of a claymore!”
RIP Jocky!
