DARTS: Eddie Brown looked on with envy as world champ Phil Taylor celebrated an historic nine-dart finish and pocketed a cool £100,000.Taylor became the first player to achieve the feat live on television en route to capturing the recent Stan James World Matchplay title in Blackpool.

DARTS

EDDIE Brown looked on with envy as world champ Phil Taylor celebrated an historic nine-dart finish and pocketed a cool £100,000.

Taylor became the first player to achieve the feat live on television en route to capturing the recent Stan James World Matchplay title in Blackpool.

At his home in Stonham Parva, meanwhile, 65-year old Brown was left to reflect on what might have been.

Brown, the world number one 40 years ago, remembered his very own nine-dart finish – and how his reward was strictly small beer.

He laughed: "Good luck to Phil, but when I did it in Great Yarmouth all those years ago I picked up a couple of crates of ale – and I'm not even a drinking man! Of course, I would have

preferred the money."

Brown was crowned News of the World champion, the equivalent of today's world event, back in 1962, but he never took the plunge and turned professional. Said Brown: "I never really thought about it. It wasn't my line. I was just happy doing what I was doing at the time."

Taylor, the undisputed world number one, threw seven treble 20s and a treble 19 before a

double 12 earned him the bumper cheque.

Brown, a Stonham Magpie stalwart for many years, took a slightly different route in that his final two darts recorded a treble 15 and a double 18.

He added: "I've stopped playing now. The pub team packed up, and I'm getting old. I'm still

enjoying life, though. I haven't got time to start another team up, or play again."

Such was Brown's achievement in 1962 that his trophy was placed on the Magpie bar along with Ipswich Town's League Championship silverware.