Leighton Rees

Leighton Rees was born on January 17th, 1940 in the village of Ynysybwl, South Wales, United Kingdom where he was to spend most of his life. He attended the local Mill Street School in Pontypridd where one of his teachers famously declared on his report card that he would be "good only for reading the sports pages of the South Wales Echo". After leaving school he found work in the store room of a motor spares company, a job he did for over twenty years until he became a professional darts player in 1976.

It was during his time working as a store man that Leighton found the sport of darts, becoming a regular for his local pub and county. It was not until 1972 though that he gained any real national attention. Sid Waddell, now a commentator for Sky Sports, was at the time producer of Yorkshire Television's Indoor League Pub Games Show, and his researchers had reported of a trio of great darts players in the South Wales valleys, an area that was quickly becoming a hotbed of talent for the sport. The three names mentioned were Tony Ridler of Newport, Alan Evans of the Rhondda and especially Leighton Rees of little Ynysybwl.

Waddell quickly offered all three the chance to play on national television and they did not disappoint, Ridler and Evans both scored a number of 180s in their matches, but although he did not perform as well on the night it was Leighton Rees who stole the show. Over a lager and a cigar he told presenter Fred Trueman, in his soon to be famous brand of dry humour, stories about himself and Evans hustling the English.

After this exposure Leighton Rees arrived at that years News Of The World Championship, at the time Dart's closest thing to a world championship, and was a favourite to win the event. However his famously lazy arm throwing style was a little too tight that day and he lost in the early rounds, much to the dismay of his many travelling fans. He did however make amends in many ways by being a part of the famous 1977 Wales team that won the very first World Darts Federation World Cup.

Rees' finest hour however would come in 1978 at the very first Embassy World Professional Darts Championship, in Nottingham. Seeded third he easily dispensed with Australian Barry Atkinson in round one at a score of 6-0 before taking on his close friend, welsh team-mate and 5th seed Alan Evans in the second round. It turned into a classic with both players averaging over 90 per three darts (almost unheard of in those days). Evans took out an early lead with a couple of 180s before Rees recorded the championship's first ever ten-dart finish (also the first ever televised) before eventually running out a 6-3 victor. At the time the BBC's executive producer Nick Hunter proclaimed it as the match that made darts live up to all their expectations and cemented it as a National TV item for years to come.

In the semi-final Rees actually struggled to beat a determined American, Nick Virachkul 8-7 in the semi-finals but showed a whole different set of battling qualities to pull through into a final against the great John Lowe. Rees would again average over 90 with Lowe not far behind in a great final, eventually sealed 11-7 by Rees to win his only ever World Championship.

Leighton Rees did return to the final in 1979, again beating Evans along the way before this time losing to John Lowe by 5 sets to 0. A quarter-final in 1980 and a last-16 place in 1981 followed, after which Rees could only manage round one exits in 1982, 1983, 1985 and 1990. Despite this his matches nearly always resulted in full arenas and he remained one of darts most popular competitors. It is because of this that he is credited alongside the likes of John Lowe, Eric Bristow, Jockey Wilson, Cliff Lazarenko and now Phil Taylor as bringing darts to the masses via the television screens.

In 1980 Leighton Rees married his wife Debbie, a Californian, in Las Vegas while he was competing in a tournament there. They returned to Ynysybwl and Leighton Rees unfortunately passed away on Sunday, 8th June, 2003.