Bellies and Bullseyes

It all started over a month ago chez Sid and Irene at Pudsey when top journo Donald McRae gave me a whole page of the Guardian and titled the article ‘The Madness and Melancholy of Britain’s Greatest Commentator.’ But the bit I liked most about the book review was this line. ‘Sid’s success is rooted in the affection he feels for the darts players.’ If that comes across in my book I am well chuffed.

In Darts World, darts’ own expert historian, Pat Chaplin, had this to say. ‘BELLIES AND BULLSEYES is a fascinating, well-structured, readable and at times hilarious history of modern darts.’ This strikes a warm note; for me in my 30-year career the game has never been far from laughs.

In the Newcastle Evening Chronicle, John Gibson described my role over the years thus. ‘Such was Waddell’s initial impression upon a sport that was synonymous with smoky workingmen’s clubs, beer fumes and roll-your-own fags, pot bellies and hot tungsten, that he transformed it into television’s original reality show. A must-watch fascination for Joe Public.’

John is a fellow Geordie and right on the money with this analysis. In essence, all I ever do is point up the characters and their unique skills, then sit back and watch the fireworks.

And if you can’t take it…you wait for the witty backhander. Here is what Peter Smith of the Yorkshire Evening Post had to say. ‘Like a Waddell commentary, his book is fast-moving, well-told, very funny… and SLIGHTLY BARKING!’

As for Sheena Hastings of the Yorkshire Post, she reckoned that I have become ‘a darling both to darts lovers and those who write about the sport.’ But she had one big complaint. After two hours interviewing me she got a bad case of Siditis. She purpled up her prose to this nutty level –‘Sid is the raucous Geordie who harpoons the English language then turns it into a kebab.’ Look out for that ace analogy appearing soon live on Sky darts!

The latest review, in the Observer, was glowing to say the least. It described my book as simply ’Brilliant’.

I am off this weekend to a posh convention of booksellers at Windsor, where I will be a guest speaker after lunch along with top novelist Sandra Howard, wife of the former leader of the Conservative Party. Maybe she’ll be talking Sidese before we finish the sweet course. We’ll see.