I won the first ever PDC World Darts Championship but I was threatened with losing my house and never got my trophy back
DENNIS PRIESTLEY threw the first three darts of the inaugural PDC World Championship and won the title — but then never got his trophy back!
It is the 30th anniversary of the tournament which kicks off at Alexandra Palace on Friday.
Priestley, now 73, beat 3-1 in the opening match on Boxing Day 1993.
It was launched after the top 16 stars left the British Darts Organisation in an acrimonious split.
The ensuing legal dispute nearly cost ‘The Menace’ his home.
He said: “It was a big step into the unknown. We were being threatened with having our houses taken off us.
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“We were being sued for one thing and another.
“It took a while to get on the right path. I didn’t even get my trophy back.
“They couldn’t afford a new trophy for the 1995 champion so they asked to borrow mine.”
Priestley crushed Phil Taylor 6-1 in the first final, then called the WDC, winning £12,000.
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Remarkably in this year’s event, a player who loses in the second round will receive £15k.
He added: “I won £12,000 for winning the title. Phil and I shared the £16,000 and £8,000 for winner and runner-up.
“The reason we did that is because we had spent so much on legal fees for lawyers to fight the case for the split.
“We didn’t really make much prize money until much later on.
“There’s a huge progression with money. I never expected them to get to half a million for the first prize. I’ve heard that it’s not far off before a million for the winner.
“The players now are reaping all the benefits from us penny pinching.
“I’m very proud that we did what we did. I just wish the players that followed maybe didn’t take it for granted. It took a lot of hard work to get it to where it is.”
Priestley also admits that it was always tricky playing the legendary Scot Wilson. But they were good friends after verbals a few years earlier.
He added: “You were never certain what would happen and what Jocky would turn up. I never wound anyone up, I wasn’t that type of person. Jocky was a character.
“We did have words five years earlier in the News of the World event at the Hammersmith Odeon. I think that cemented our friendship.
“He had just lost and Dave Whitcombe had beaten him. We came back into the changing rooms where we could practice.
“Kids were at the stage door and Jocky told them to f-off. I set about him.
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I said ‘you shouldn’t talk to people like that’. He said ‘who are you, you’re a nobody’.
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“I said I know that but I wouldn’t talk to children like that, effing and blinding at them. Then about ten minutes after he pipes up and says ‘you are right Dennis, I’m sorry’. We became firm friends after that.
“In 1991 at the BDO Worlds, he was at the bar and just sung some rendition of a Scottish song and then told everyone I was going to win the Embassy. I did. He was a good judge!”