This is John Lowe’s fourth and most extensive book to date. It tells the story of his whole life in and out of darts and has been put together with the help of Darts historian Patrick Chaplin.

After wading through no less than 4 introductions of sorts, page 1 is a long time coming. However when it does arrive Lowe’s easy going story telling style no doubt tidied up by Chaplin is refreshing and honest.

In the first section of the book Lowe recounts his personal life story to date, primarily focussing on the trials and tribulations of his marriages and family life. There is no doubt it is interesting and sometimes almost painfully so and it is heartening to realise that even a celebrity such as Lowe has the same ups and downs as the rest of us. However the majority of people who buy John Lowe’s book will be interested in one subject…Darts.

Darts finally come into the equation about 100 pages in and Lowe recounts his personal memories as well as paying tribute to some of the late greats of the game such as the Welsh wizards Leighton Rees and Alan Evans.

The story of the split comes across as a full pronged attack against the BDO. Most interesting to read was how Eric Bristow went from being the closest knit member of the BDO community into the leader in the court case against them. Having heard the story from a variety of sources now, while some utter at least partial regret and Dennis Priestley saying in an interview last year that, “perhaps we acted a little rashly”, there is no such backtracking from Lowe. Assuming Lowe’s text is factual, while undoubtedly the behaviour of the BDO seems outrageous, the hard-headedness of the 16 breakaway players is equally on show.

Lowe goes on to recount some interesting stories from his life involving friends such as Cliff Lazarenko and the late Tom Fleetwood and Barry Twomlow. There are also some memorable stories of his encounters with other celebrities including Dean Martin, Muhammad Ali, Dennis Compton and Victor Borge. The Freddie Starr story will linger long in my memory and always bring a smile. Had it been anyone else I’d have been shocked and offended, but you just can’t take offence with good old Freddie.

However the book is not flawless by any means.  

Firstly the book has a few factual errors that could and should have been corrected. For example Lowe mentions winning the News of the World in 1981 and how it was the crowning glory naming the main tournaments he had won to this point. However he neglects to mention his World Championship win in 1979 – surely a big oversight! In another section he recounts a story of Alan Evans throwing twelve maximums in two legs, a mathematical impossibility. Also as the book closes Lowe mentions he is at the time of writing ranked no 20 and then a paragraph later mentions 2005. However Lowe has been outside the ranked top 32 for a year or more due to his lack of participation in events on the PDC floor circuit. Hopefully these and other anomalies will be cleared up should there be a paperback edition and frustrating as they are, they don’t spoil the enjoyment too much.

However Lowe’s judgement must sometimes be questioned.  Particularly where he is quite dismissive of the achievements of Raymond Van Barneveld (another error stating he has 3 world championship wins, when he has 4) stating that he won the titles against inferior opposition. Considering Barneveld won  the majority of his titles against the field of players most of whom now ply their trade at the very top of the rankings in the PDC it is hard to pay any credence to such obvious BDO anti-feeling. The same charge could be levied against Taylor’s first four PDC wins which were in tournaments featuring very varying levels of quality opposition.

Lowe can be perhaps forgiven for being a little conceited at times, I am sure many of us would be had we been three times world champion. However publishing an averages table to try and convince people that perhaps he was a better player than Eric Bristow during the ‘Craft Cockney’s’ reign at the top is a little hard to swallow.

These criticisms aside, any fan of Lowe or fan of darts will thoroughly enjoy this book. Lowe’s style is easy to digest and most of the stories and exploits are very interesting reading. It is a little disjointed as the events and stories are not chronological, but all in all it is a more than worthwhile record of the achievements and life of one of darts greatest ever players whose remarkable career has spanned almost two generations.

Let’s hope (as we saw at the UK Open finals this year) that we’ve not seen the last of ‘Old Stoneface’ yet. In the spirit of the game of darts, raise a glass and three cheers to John Lowe.

SUPERSTARS OF DARTS