Eric Bristow Read Free Page B

today. Or if he was he would’ve been left severely paralysed. If I’d have stayed in that flat they would’ve thrown me out of the window as well. However, they just walked around the two flats, someone said, ‘No one’s in here,’ and they were gone. If they’d have just opened the wardrobe door Eddie would’ve been a dead man. You didn’t mess with the wrong families back then. As soon as this happened he packed his bags and moved to Las Vegas. He was a dead man walking in London. He’s still there now, working as a croupier, and has a few properties. The minute that happened he was gone and he’s never come back.
    I always wonder what would have happened if I hadn’t ended up playing darts. I’d probably have ended up in prison or drifted into big-time crime. Darts was my salvation. I tried to get the gang into darts when I was sixteen which was a big mistake. We formed a team and we might as well have called ourselves The Lunatics because they were potty. We played my league team, the Arundel Arms, who I threw for a couple of nights a week when I first started out. My lot wanted to fight them when we lost. That was an embarrassing moment. Their idea of a darts match was to play, have a load of beer and then beat up the opposition. It didn’t last; it couldn’t last for the sake of my career.
    So I left, and didn’t see most of them again, except that when I was seventeen I did get invited to the wedding of one of our top lads, a bloke called Sully. What a disaster that was. All the boys were there and it was a bit of a reunion. Unfortunately on the bride’s side of the family was a rather large contingent of lads, many of whom had been involved in run-ins with our lot, including yours truly. As the beer began to flow and the day progressed so tempers got fraught, and one of our gang decided he was going to fill in this bloke who he didn’t like. They weren’t doing anything wrong but they sensed trouble so they managed to get a police van on standby outside, just in case a fight needed breaking up. It was the sensible thing to do. I’d had enough. I didn’t want any trouble and could tell there was a big fight brewing, so I decided to go. The last thing I wanted to do was fight at a wedding and spoil someone’s big day. However, by the time I got outside half the force in London had been tipped off that there was going to be a mass battle between a known gang and some other lads and they were ready to go in, round up our boys and nick them. When they saw me come out of there they must have been rubbing their hands in glee. As soon as I got about a hundred yards down the road a police van started following me. I knew they were going to do me so I tried to run but got caught. Back at the station the duty officer took my belongings. It was obvious what they were going to do, they were going to take me down to the cells and give me a beating, so as soon as I handed over my jacket to this officer I decked him with one punch; logic told me that as I was going to get done over I might as well hit one of them. That was it; they dragged me to the cells and about half a dozen of them laid into me. They beat me so hard my nose exploded and there was blood everywhere. After it was all over they called in a doctor to check me out.
    ‘What happened to you?’ he said.
    ‘I fell over,’ I mumbled through thick lips.
    Saying that meant that they didn’t charge me. It was no good saying I’d been beaten up because they would’ve thrown the book at me. I left that police station not knowing if Sully’s wedding ever did erupt in violence, the people there knew nothing of the beating, but knowing that this sort of life – doing things wrong and getting in trouble with the law – was something that just didn’t give me a rush any more. Darts was where I got my buzz now. I need a buzz and a thrill – they get me through life and make it enjoyable. Without that adrenaline rush life is not worth living. In the