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Bobby George was one of the first darts players to become a media figure not only because of his results. In addition to his triumphs in prestigious tournaments and his two world championship runner-up finishes in 1980 and 1994, he will be ed for the way he presented himself at each competition: with crown and cape, necklaces and rings and a candlestick in hand while Queen's 'We Are the Champions' played.
At 79 years of age, and also with a long career as a television commentator, he has just published an autobiography under the title of Still Here! The King of Bling. In it, he points out how he had to have four toes amputated, two from each foot, due to a genetic deformity. The first one, he keeps in a bottle of vodka in the bar of his mansion
"Nobody believes me, or at least they don't, until they see me without socks. Or if they come for a drink at my house in George Hall and see the evidence for themselves. There is some kind of gene in my body that has caused my toes to come out of place and cross over. Some days they hurt so much that if I had had a sharp enough knife, I would have cut them off myself," says George.
When he had his first toe amputated in 1999, the surgeon showed it to him in a small jar. George took it home where he keeps it in vodka. "Every time someone comes over for a drink, I take it out and ask if they want a cocktail or a cocktoe," he says. "It has also meant that over the years, if I've been away from home for an extended period of time and my wife, Marie, misses me, she can always suck my toe."
If I've been away from home for a long time and my wife, Marie, misses me, she can always suck my toe
The 1979 World Masters semi-finalist confessed that he takes 16 pills a day to cope with the pain he suffers from arthritis in his hip and the back injury he suffered at the 1994 World Championship. After beating Russell Stewart and Martin Phillips, he felt great pain in his spine when he celebrated with a jump when he won the set that put him 3-2 up during his quarter-final match against Kevin Kenny.George won 4-2 and reached the semifinals. The next day, after an X-ray, a doctor told him: "You can't play darts. You shouldn't even be able to walk. You broke your back, Mr. George." But he went on. He played the final in a steel corset. A few weeks later he went under the knife.
"I was lucky not to be paralysed, but I still needed immediate surgery. The £16,000 (¤19,000) I won as a finalist helped pay for the operation. Eight titanium screws were inserted at the base of my spine to help me on the long road to recovery," he recalls.