Biography
The impassioned Geordie tones of Sid Waddell have made him the unique 'Voice of Darts'.
There is no doubt that since he began commentating on televised darts in 1977, Sid's enthusiasm, vivid language and humour have helped make household names of Leighton Rees, John 'Old Stoneface' Lowe, Jocky Wilson, Eric Bristow, Bob 'Limestone Cowboy' Anderson and Phil 'The Power' Taylor.
And Sid is extra proud that he saw the television potential of darts over thirty years ago; it is now accepted as a real sport by the press. 'Once the papers scoffed at darts as a pastime for tattooed blokes swilling pints of lager. Now they see Taylor as a sporting legend to be compared to Bradman, Babe Ruth and Jesse Owens,' says Sid. 'I believe Unicorn have always known that darts is a true sport in which excellence of equipment, attitude and achievement are important. I am delighted to join their team.'
Sid comes from a mining family in the Ashington area of East Northumberland. He gained county honours.as a schoolboy rugby player and won the 100 yards for the Northern Counties against Scotland in 1957. His father Bob was a good snooker player and in 1958 introduced Sid to darts.
He took Modern History at St John's College Cambridge from 1959 to 1962 and in that time captained the college darts team twice to the inter-collegiate final. But efforts to get the sport 'Blue' ranking failed. Still, Sid's spadework did help an annual Oxford/Cambridge darts match - men's and women's - to be introduced in the mid-80s.
While working as a producer at Yorkshire Television in 1972 Sid was one of the devisers of the ground-breaking Indoor League pub sports programme. 'Despite the panache of the shove ha'penny stars and the bravado of the arm-wrestlers, the darters were in a class of their own,' Sid recalls. And when the BBC covered the first ever Embassy World Professional Championships at Nottingham in 1978, Sid was given his debut as commentator. After that, cracks such as 'Anderson came on like the Laughing Cavalier, now he looks like Lee Van Cleef on a bad night' and 'We couldn't have more excitement if Elvis had walked in and asked for a chip sandwich' have made him a cult figure.
Sid commentated on every Embassy until 1994 and has been with Sky as their lead darts commentator for the last ten years. In 2002 a poll of 70 sports commentators voted him Commentator of the Year. He has commentated on 9-ball pool, 10-pin bowling, clay pigeon shooting and even domino toppling. And, despite being a total duffer at darts, he won the Fleet Street Pro-Celebrity Pairs title in 1981 with Eric Bristow.
Away from the oche, Sid has helped Jocky Wilson, John Lowe, and most recently, Phil Taylor with biographies. He also wrote the highly successful BBC TV children's comedy series Jossy's Giants .
He and his wife Irene, a TV documentary producer, have five grown-up children and live in Pudsey, West Yorkshire.