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Page 1 — The voice that made darts unique
Page 2 — The 180 fell more and more often
There are things that seem too far-fetched for anyone to imagine. Nonetheless, they are real. There is a competition in which people throw small arrows as accurately as possible at a randomly numbered target over an arbitrary distance of 2.37 meters. And millions of viewers celebrate it.
This resulted in a huge sports business. And in this unlikely world, one man is more famous than almost everyone else. Not because he excels in this discipline called darts. But because he calls out the scores, shouts, whispers – whatever you want to call it. “Oooooone hundred aaand eiiighteyyyy!!“for example. The man, the referee, is called Russ Bray. In the World Cup final late on Wednesday evening, in which Luke Humphries became world champion for the first time, Bray’s voice echoed through Alexandra Palace in London one last time.
It’s a loss. Bray gave darts what business profilers call an asset, lovers call identity and sports romantics call soul. The Voice made darts distinctive. He has been retired since Wednesday.
A special honor with special participants
As a special honor, Bray was allowed to referee the final as the sole referee. Normally, the referees are replaced halfway through the seven-set World Cup highlight – the vocal and mentally tiring distance is too great. But Bray got this match as a gift. And it turned out to be an unexpectedly beautiful one.
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28-year-old Luke Humphries and 16-year-old Luke Littler met in a debutant final. The organizing association, the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC), certainly did not expect this, as they had not nominated Humphries for the prestigious Premier League despite a strong 2022 season and fifth place in the world rankings, thus indirectly saying: not star material. Humphries, hurt, took this as an opportunity to have an outstanding 2023 season and won the last three major titles before the World Cup.
His opponent, however, was even more unlikely. As a teenager, the youngest finalist of all time and at his first ever World Cup, Luke Littler threw his three arrows per shot with an average of 101.82 points. Only Phil Taylor, Michael van Gerwen and Gary Anderson – three legends of their sport – achieved more in 31 years at the World Cup. The British press celebrated Littler extensively, including comparisons with Messi, Pelé and Boris Becker.
The initials on the title were as equal as the first names of the finalists, so that Russ Bray, quite unusually in darts, was forced to regularly announce them by their last names. This encounter started with 2:2 in the sets.
16 years old: Luke Littler © Tom Dulat/Getty Images
Darts referees need a presence that can keep agitated opponents apart and to some extent prevent unfair whistling and booing from the constant noise of the audience. He also uses the microphone and loudspeaker to inform the spectators about the height of the throws. If a 180 falls, the maximum possible value for a darter in one shot, i.e. three arrows, he raises his voice. Bray’s job itself was exceptionally unspectacular.
That’s what Bray thought in 1996 when he spontaneously replaced a referee in a pub who didn’t show up for an event. Until then, he had thrown arrows regionally and had spent the previous years working as a police patrolman, driving instructor and, most recently, a scaffolder. In his youth he was a decent high jumper.
Bray had slipped into darts refereeing shortly after a pivotal moment: the Great Schism of 1992. Sixteen players were unhappy with the sport’s pub image and left the British Darts Organization (BDO) to form the PDC. Their goal from the start was to eventize the sport, which started small with the 1994 World Cup. So small that it lacked referees.
“Oh man, I must have messed that up”
The BDO, which was much larger at the time, banned all PDC participants, including referees, from their events. For Bray, who was throwing at small tournaments four to five times a week at the time, the offer to work as a substitute referee for the PDC was a risk: he would lose his favorite hobby. Nevertheless, he agreed because he liked the role as a neutral authority at the forefront of the hustle and bustle.
For a moment this decision seemed to end in disaster for Bray. “They told me after the first tournament that the PDC would not need a replacement referee,” Bray recalls in one of his last major interviews. “I thought, ‘Oh man, I must have really messed that up!’ But then they said: ‘We’ve found our third referee!'” Bray has been part of the PDC entourage ever since.
Back then, darts was still an absolute fringe sport. “In the beginning we put everything in a van – the oche, the board, the speakers – and unloaded it at the pubs,” said Bray. “Today I’ve been to Australia over forty times and almost everywhere in the world!” The arrow boom is a story in itself. In which Russ Bray played a decisive role.
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Further
Its rolling wild today”Oooone
hundred and eighteyy!” sounded tame at the end of the nineties compared to today. But the response from the darts fan world, which was still quite small at the time, quickly showed the PDC what they had in him: an acquaintance organized a few handfuls of autograph cards for Bray, which she put out at events . Below the title: The Voice. His myth was born. The cards all went away.
The living jingle
Bray achieved what in the sports business only the boxing match announcer Michael Buffer could do with his distinctive – and trademarked – “Let’s get ready to rumble!” has succeeded: He becomes the living jingle of his sport. Bray’s scratchy, stylish voice oscillates somewhere between ecstatic loss of control and an engine at maximum performance. Perfect for the new image of the dart.
There are things that seem too far-fetched for anyone to imagine. Nonetheless, they are real. There is a competition in which people throw small arrows as accurately as possible at a randomly numbered target over an arbitrary distance of 2.37 meters. And millions of viewers celebrate it.
This resulted in a huge sports business. And in this unlikely world, one man is more famous than almost everyone else. Not because he excels in this discipline called darts. But because he calls out the scores, shouts, whispers – whatever you want to call it. “Oooooone hundred aaand eiiighteyyyy!!“for example. The man, the referee, is called Russ Bray. In the World Cup final late on Wednesday evening, in which Luke Humphries became world champion for the first time, Bray’s voice echoed through Alexandra Palace in London one last time.
