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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