Forgotten Darters: ‘Richie Rich’ George who briefly followed in the footsteps of legendary father Bobby George

In this column we regularly reminisce about Forgotten Darters from the past. Today it is the turn of the Englishman Richard 'Richie' George, son of the legendary Bobby George.

Richie George was active in the youth system for a while but then disappeared from the scene for several years. He only re-emerged in 2012 when he reached the last 32 at the Winmau World Masters, where he eventually lost 3-1 to Swiss thrower Thomas Junghans.

He also performed well at the rest of the BDO tournaments, making his debut at Lakeside in 2013 as the fifteenth seed. It was also the first father-son combination that both had played at the BDO World Championship.

Sensation on World Championship debut

George also did very well at that World Championship, although he was lucky. In the first round he survived no less than seven match darts against Dave Prins.

In the second round he defeated the Dutchman Jimmy Hendriks 4-2 and in the quarterfinals another real nail-biter followed against Jan Dekker. George won that match 5-4 and was immediately into the semi-finals on his debut. Under the watchful eye of father Bobby and mother Marie, the fairytale ended there with a 6-1 defeat against the soon to become world champion Scott Waites.

Grand Slam of Darts

With that semifinal place 'Richie Rich' had immediately secured a place in the Grand Slam of Darts later that year. However, he had to go home after the group stage following defeats against Adrian Lewis, Christian Kist and Ronny Huybrechts. A year after his semifinal place, George qualified for the BDO World Championship again, this time, however, he was out in the opening round after a 3-0 defeat against Robbie Green.

George reached the quarter-finals at the Dutch Open and Scottish Classic in 2014 and qualified for the Grand Slam of Darts again that same year. However, again he lost his three group matches. In fact, he barely won three legs in three games.

At barely 25 years old, it was his last performance in a darts tournament. A year later he made the news again after attacking hospital staff when he was taken to hospital after a diabetic hypo attack.

This saw him forced to resign from his job as a care home boss and like alluded to, he has not been seen since on a dart board.