HEARTBROKEN Phil Taylor has tonight paid an emotional tribute to his “brother” Eric Bristow, claiming he is still in shock over the Crafty Cockney’s sudden death.
Bristow died aged 60 on Thursday evening, after suffering a fatal heart attack in a car park.
Eric Bristow loaned Phil Taylor the money to turn professional and become the most successful darts player in historyHe was returning to a hotel in Liverpool after a corporate darts event.
Taylor, a 16-time world champion, was famously loaned £10,000 by Bristow in the late 1980s to quit his job in a ceramics factory making beer pump handles and become a darts player.
And The Power has revealed the pain he is feeling after his Bristow’s passing – especially as the pair spoke via text message earlier this week.
Taylor, 57, said: “Eric was like a brother to me. A brother from another mother. I loved him.
“I’m obviously gutted more than words can describe.
“I was in bed on Thursday night and I turned on the TV to hear the fans singing ‘Walking In A Bristow Wonderland’.
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“I thought Eric had turned up on stage or something, then I was given the awful news.
“Quite simply I owe him everything. I wouldn’t have achieved what I did without him being a mentor and sponsoring me in the early days. I couldn’t afford to go to Rhyl let alone Canada or Las Vegas to play darts.
“Probably his biggest influence on me was the winning mentality. Like my mum and dad, he was very strict with me, he didn’t want to talk to me unless I’d won an event.
“I would ring him up and say I’d made the semi-final or lost the final and he shout at me “Only ring me when you’ve won” – and then slam the phone down.
“But that gave me the drive and hunger to succeed and I needed that at the time.
“That mentality is his legacy. He started it, made me like it and now the standard will continue to go up because of him.
“He was the first superstar of darts, he started the success it is today.
“Don’t get me wrong there were other big names of the time like Alan Evans, Leighton Rees, Jocky Wilson and John Lowe, but Eric put darts on the back pages of every tabloid newspaper.
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“Everybody knew who Eric was and they still do; the biggest name in the sport.
“Even when I go about my normal life, I still hear Eric telling me stuff in my head, that will never change.
“He never praised me to my face, not once. Strangely enough, he was just like my dad in that way. But other people told me when I wasn’t around, he was so complimentary about me.
“That was Eric though. He lived life on his own terms and good on him. I’d always tell him to cut down on the fags and booze but he’d tell me to p*** off. You couldn’t tell him anything.
“We only text a couple of days ago and the last time I spent time with him the other week we were stuck on a train together and he told a fellow passenger to shut up.
“Someone said to him could they ask him a question and he said ‘Of course’. He asked and then went to ask another question, and Eric told him to shut up because he only had one question. It was all fun but the entire train was laughing.
“One of the last things he said to me was: “Why are you f*****g retiring?”
“Typical Eric, pulling no punches.
“To be honest, it hasn’t really sunk in that he’s gone. I’m still in a bit of shock. I am worried that it will hit me at some stage.
“I will miss him so much.”
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