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Wednesday 8 February 2017

The BIG one: My Interview with 3x World Champion, The Legend that is John Lowe!


Hi Guys

It is my absolute 100% honor, and pleasure to present to you the online interview i have done with the one and only, the legend that is 3x world champion and winner of over 1000 tournaments in his incredible career Mr John Lowe.



Mr Lowe kindly answered these questions whilst on holiday and it is the most in-depth interview that i know has been done with Mr Lowe recently and covers a few areas that i dont think have been covered before:

The interview:

LS: Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions Mr Lowe.

Q1: I think that past Major winners should receive invites or wildcards to certain tournaments as there is still a massive audience for darting legends, do you agree?

JL: I think World Champions should be invited into the World Championships until they reach the age of 60, unless they retire, maybe the same for the World Matchplay, not sure about all events, just the 2 Majors

Q2: Having met you at an event in Dorset in 2014 you came across as a terrific bloke and full of energy and still playing incredible darts. Free of the rigours of the tour’ do you feel that you could still compete today in certain events if given the opportunity?

JL: In all honesty, I feel I could compete, but not on a weekly basis, that is why I stopped playing on the tour, it is so demanding, I play exhibition now, and they are mainly for charity, at present I am doing a McMillan Nurses tour, and really enjoy raising much needed funds for them

Q3: I have publicised your book ‘the art of darts’ (http://mydartinglife.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/john-lowe-art-of-darts-buy-it-now.html) on my blog repeatedly. In it you mention your workout programme at that time (2005) what routine (if any) do you follow today (I know Bob Anderson plays a lot of golf)?

JL: The Art of Darts was written to show the players they do not have to do anything out of the ordinary, keep things simple, get a good stance, throwing elbow in and a clean release, it will keep anyone's game reliable for years, still round the board on doubles for me, and round the fairways whenever possible.

Q4: An obvious one, but how often do you practice these days and has age affected your physicality to practice for a long duration or is it purely other interests? -  I would hope you are a long way off retirement.

JL: I will play darts for as long as I do not embarrass myself, by that I mean put up a good account, these days it is not possible to win all matches, especially at exhibitions, after all your opponent goes first ! I think people turn out to see someone from the early days, a pioneer, but also a multi title winner, a lot of the top professionals playing now, to be honest, have won very little, I amassed over 1000 titles world wide, something I am very proud of.


Q5: One of the most amazing accomplishments you achieved but is seldom mentioned is that you won the British Pentathlon an amazing 10x (still a record) in 11 years, what do you attribute this incredible run in this event to (it was a floor event wasn’t it?).

JL: I set out to win the Pentathlon 10 times, then I didn't play in it again, I put my wins down to having the ability to play all the many different games involved, also having a stance that would allow me to play for 6 hours in competition.

Q6: You have an iconic set of darts which have also been used to great success by others. What darts did you use before your signature barrel, and were they similar to what they would become?

JL: Tungsten darts was introduced in the Uk in 1969 by Unicorn Products, the first set was made for Barry Twomlow, then News of the World Champion, it was another 3 years before I obtained a set very similar to my darts of today made of Copper Tungsten, a lot of people come up to me and ask if I am still using the fat darts, well, I never owned a set of fat darts, in fact they are quite slim, it is the shorter Barrel that appears to make them look fat. with the help on Unicorn I changed the dart slightly adding another 2 rings, as you say they have made a lot of players successful, including Phil Taylor who took a few sets from Unicorn one day and made them his own signature model, I wasn't upset that Phil found them to be better than his own model, just a little disappointed he has never recognised who they belonged to and who designed them.


Q7: Darts for some reason doesn’t tend to honour its past greats in the manner as other sports and I’m surprised that the PDC hasn’t picked up the ‘League of legends’ tv concept, since there is still a very clear demand to see the legends of darts. Is this something you’d still be interested in if the opportunity arose?

JL: The PDC became a little upset when we formed our own League of Legends with Setanta TV, sadly Setanta went out of business, I do think the opportunity will present itself once again when Taylor stops competing on tour, which by all accounts will be at the end of 2017, it is a natural progression  of his career, and I am sure he will still be big box office, it will be left to see who fills the other places, but there will be no shortage of players queuing up to join what could be another successful addition to the PDC arm.

Q8: I think your 2002 performance in the World Matchplay vs Taylor was something to behold against a player considered the greatest of all time and arguably at his peak. You looked revitalised and on any other day against any other player would have won and the whole tournament. Memories of that match?

JL: That was one of the finest matches I played in, and I still watch it, I feel sure I should have won but for a missed D20.

Q9: You had a consistent 90+ average in the 80’s where looking back the staples on the board obscured about a quarter of the treble segment, this is why I have no doubt that the likes of yourself, Bristow, Jocky, Deller and Anderson etc could compete today.  Obviously it was what you were used to then, however I think it took more skill then to hit the treble, what do you think? and do you think players from the 80’s don’t get the credit vs current players (I myself use an old board with staples to practice as find it forces me to be more accurate, which is a benefit come match day and a ‘nice’ board)?

JL: A point I very often make, the Trebles, Doubles and the Centre Bull are 14% bigger today, and the bounce outs come seldom, anyone watching my 9 dart game will know it was more difficult, that was the reason it took so many years to achieve, I take nothing away from the skill of today's top players, they are amazing to watch on our TV screens, and I do not ask for comparison to players of the past, records speak for themselves, Eric Bristow and myself  averaged 90 per throw for all the years we played in the Embassy, one of us reached the final for 11 consecutive years, and to date I hold the record for the most World championships in a row at 28, those statistics speak for volumes.

Q10: With an average in the 90’s, the first 9 darter, 3 world championships and 8 finals and countless other tournament wins it’s hardly indicative of  anything other than a  high scorer. Do you think that your overall steadiness, calm demeanour and consistency belied your scoring power as a lot of players were considered BIG scorers in your era (Bob Anderson, Jocky Wilson, Eric Bristow etc.) but would visually raw your attention to it and yet in a direct comparator you outscored the majority of them?

JL: There was a lot of hype in my glory days, Eric would try to win matches Verbally, not that he really needed to, it never washed with myself,  I just played my game, shook hands before and afterwards, win or lose, after all we do call it a sport, If I lost I would look at why I lost, sometimes it was to a better player, but often it was my own fault, it's important you recognise your own faults and try to correct them. 

Q11: Despite its popularity darts seems to be the only sport out there with minimal DVD releases, whereas football, boxing, even snooker has end of season reviews, player’s greatest hits, legends of the game etc. There’s been reports that both organisations are trying to remove darts footage off of Youtube which could in effect erase your whole era. They haven’t signalled their intent to release the footage under their own banner (and therefore not losing revenue on repeat viewings) and this could stop a lot of fans home and abroad watching past footage. Your thoughts?


JL: I was not aware the BDO and PDC are trying to stop Youtube showing homemade videos, the power of Youtube is massive, Unicorn have their own channel that's is well received World Wide, I did note the PDC released a DVD The House of Arrows at Christmas time, for some reason I wasn't asked to be part of it, I do not know what sales would achieve, but feel sure the manufactures will have done market research, hence the reason not many available at this time, for the time being let's all enjoy what we have on Youtube.


LS: I would just like to thank you for this tremendous opportunity and privilege to ask you these questions . Luke

There you have it guys

Luke






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