"My daughter is 21 now, I’ve missed 17 of her birthdays" - George Noble explains how he's putting family first with PDC retirement
PDCThursday, 19 June 2025 at 08:00
George Noble, one of the most recognisable voices in darting history, has announced his retirement after the 2026 World Championships in January.
‘The Puppy’ first announced this to Belgian TV at the Dutch Darts Championship in Rosmalen, announcing it as his last ever European Tour event, before making the formal announcement in an interview with the MODUS Super Series, the league for which he is Managing Director, last week. Here is what the legendary caller had to say on his decision:
Noble first shone a light on why now is the perfect time to bring to an end his long and illustrious refereeing career: “Many aspects, really. 31 years I’ve been refereeing televised darts tournaments. I still enjoy it, but I’ve got quite a few other interests now. My daughter is 21 now, I’ve missed 17 of her birthdays. I’ve now got grandchildren, and missed their birthdays, so it’s all about a little bit more quality of life," he explains. "I’m not retiring full time from everything. I wish I was, but I’m not, but it’s just the refereeing side and being away. It’s the days you’re away and living in and out of hotels, on aeroplanes and things like that."
"I’ve enjoyed my time doing it, but I’m getting on a bit, so I think it’s more of a younger person’s game nowadays," he adds. "The PDC have been great to me, they’ve been fantastic, but I think everyone runs their course of what they’ve done and I want to go out whilst I’m still capable of doing the job. I want to go on my terms rather than someone saying: 'You know what, I think it’s time for you to go.' So, I’d like to think I’m going out at the top of what I do, and, as I said, it’s about quality of life really, and enjoying time with my family as well, instead of trying to incorporate the PDC work with my other work, but, as I said, I had a great time with the PDC and without them, I wouldn’t be where I am today, in the other avenues of business that I am in.”
Noble has become one of the most recognisable referees in the sport
He then proceeded to bring us back right to the start of his career, with his route into refereeing being a slightly unorthodox one: “It was actually probably 33, 34 years ago where I used to play junior darts, and I was okay, I wasn’t bad and then I just turned 18 and it was under 18s, so in the last sort of period when I was playing, a guy called Roger Nixon who was in charge of London darts and who was instrumental in developing youth darts and when the youth darts started playing into counties, Roger was one of the main people. He came up with the idea that he thought I could be a referee, or would I be a referee for him, so that’s how it actually started," he recalls. "I used to referee the junior games when I was too old to play. Well I say I was too old, it might have been that I wasn’t good enough and I was still underage, but I’m sticking with being too old.”
Throughout over thirty years of refereeing, Noble has called some of the great matches in modern history, and when asked what his most memorable matches are, the fact that he answered with two of the greatest matches the sport has ever seen is far from a surprise:
“There’s loads of matches, really. I say when I get asked this question a lot, the night Phil Taylor won the Premier League when he hit two nine-darters in one match. I think it's been done since, but on the floor, but never on live TV. He actually missed the eighth treble attempting a third one in the same match. So that would probably be one of the highlights of the matches that stuck out," Noble remembers. "I refereed a great game between Adrian Lewis and Phil Taylor at the Grand Slam that broke the record for 180s. There have been numerous big matches but they’re the ones that really stand out. There is more, but they’d probably be two of the biggest ones.”
Throughout his time in professional darts, Noble has had one constant by his side in terms of refereeing: “I knew Russ Bray when I was eight, so when he was 17 or 18. I used to go to darts tournaments with my dad in the area and we were both in the same area. So it’s quite weird, an eighteen year old and an eight year old go on to front refereeing in the TV world of the PDC," he smiles. "So Russ is a good mate of mine. I’ve got loads of good mates in the game. I will miss the people, the socialising side of it because obviously once you finish work you’ve got a lot of friends outside of that and what I will still do is, from time to time, probably if they give me a ticket, turn up and go to some of the events to see the friends I’ve made in the game.”
One of the perks of working as a full time darts referee is the opportunity to travel the world, and when Noble was asked “Las Vegas, everyone loves Las Vegas. New York, Dubai, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, the whole of Europe. I’ve obviously missed quite a few different countries out. Someone pays you to go there and work, it’s great," he laughs. "That’s the upside of it."
"One year I did every European Tour event, so you get on a plane on Thursday, then you work Friday-Sunday, get back on the plane on Monday, maybe depending on time of flight, not going home until Monday evening. You have Tuesday and Wednesday at home and then get back on the plane again on Thursday and that’s constant," Noble continued. "In between that you’d have Premier Leagues. I’m not complaining because you obviously get well paid for it. I’ve now started to scale down the last year or two, but in previous years it was eight months a year I probably wasn’t at home. I was only home four months a year. My wife says if it was the other way around, we probably still wouldn’t be married so I think it’s probably helped in that respect!”
Noble in action on the European Tour
Despite having officiated on a televised level for over three decades, Noble still insists that he doesn't find himself getting emotional over his impending retirement as of yet:
“I’m actually looking forward to having some form of normality again and I’m not saying it’s not been normal, because I’ve enjoyed what I’ve done. It’s been a great experience and I’ve been very lucky and privileged to be in the position I’ve been in," he clarifies. "It’s been a great journey and in the early days, when I worked, I worked for the BDO until 2007 and left and then joined the PDC and the growth of the PDC has been astronomical. So, I’ve really enjoyed my time, but I think I’ve come to terms with that. I think my time’s up."
"As I explained, I’d like to have a slice more quality of life, but I’ve also got a lot of projects I’m working on and I want to make them come to more fruition and be able to dedicate time to that, but I wouldn’t say it’s sinking in because I actually think it’s the correct decision," Noble adds. "So, have I stood on the stage at the O2 last week (Premier League Darts Finals) and looked out and thought: 'This is the last time I’m going to be standing here?' Maybe I did, but it wasn’t emotional or anything like that, I just think it’s the correct decision."
"Obviously I’m going to New York in a couple of weeks time for the World Series of Darts and then I’m on to Blackpool for the World Matchplay. I’m not doing the Grand Slam in Wolverhampton and then I believe I’ve got the Players Championship Finals at Butlins Minehead and then onto the World’s and then that’s me. So, who knows how I’ll feel? I don’t know!"
To wrap up the interview, Noble gave some poignant advice to future officials who are thinking of following in his footsteps: ”One bit of advice I’d give someone is, if somebody has hit a 180 and the next player is really fast, you don’t have to drag the 180 call out. It’s not about the ref, the ref doesn’t have to be the star of the show. It’s about the player. In my experience, no one has ever bought a ticket to the Premier League to come and see me. They buy a Premier League ticket to come and see the players and enjoy the experience, and what’s been created by the PDC. It’s a fantastic event. So, I would say that, don’t try to be the star of the show, so you think you have to finish every call," he advises.
"You’re there to referee a game, so I think the best compliment someone can pay you, one that I’ve had a few times and I’m sure the other refs have, is that they don’t remember who is refereeing their game. If you do something wrong, they will remember you. If you’re sort of low key and you try to tailor your refereeing to the match, I think that will always work out as an advantage for you,” Noble concludes.
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