In London today to Voice over animated film then off to the book publishers this afternoon for my book coming out soon and off to India in the morning to Kolkata for their darts festival this weekend...Stepped down, not retired🤣🤣
"I couldn't even play in my local league with my mates!" - Russ Bray recalls severe ramifications of joining the PDC in mid 90s
PDCWednesday, 17 July 2024 at 12:00
Russ Bray was one of the best-known referees within the PDC for many years. After the last World Darts Championship, he partially put an end to his impressive career, although he is still active on the World Series of Darts and the Asian Tour.
Bray was formerly active at the local level with the BDO, both as a player and as a referee. So a move to the PDC was not at all obvious. "Back then, if you had anything to do with PDC, you were banned from darts anywhere, you couldn't even play in your local league," Bray says to the Daily Express. "I don't really do politics, it's not my cup of tea. Darts was something I paid to do and then I've got someone saying I can't do this, I can't do that. I thought 'nah'."
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In 1996, he received an offer from the PDC to become a referee with them. "When someone asked if I was interested in becoming a reserve referee, I said 'yes'. They said they'd give me a try-out to see how I went and that trial was at the World Matchplay. It was exciting because no one knew where the PDC was going. They were still trying to establish themselves," Bray recalls.
Russ Bray in action as referee at the UK Open
"It was a gamble, a risk, but one I was willing to take," continued the 67-year-old Englishman. "You could see what was going to happen because it was starting to get bigger every month. It was still a huge step to make though. I'd been involved with darts since 1975, you're talking 21 years later, then I couldn't even play in my local league with my mates!"
So the pressure was on when he made his debut at the World Matchplay in the summer of 1996, initially as a reserve official. Bray recalls, "The Matchplay used to start on a Sunday and they would have three games on that day. Those three games were televised, but not shown live. In '96, I went up there for a trial with the PDC. The first game I called was with John Lowe and the second game was with Paul Lim. What an introduction to becoming a darts ref!"
Bray worried for a moment that he had not done enough to impress. "Tom Cox, the tournament director, told me as I came off the stage, 'we're not having a reserve referee'. I thought, 'oh, I've ballsed this up'," he remembers. Luckily, that wasn't the case. He then said, 'we're having three referees, welcome to the PDC'. They were the first [PDC] games I ever called, at the Matchplay in 1996... You look back at it now and it was one of the best things I ever did, as the PDC has gone from strength to strength."
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