RIP Sid Waddell

The geordie classicist who made the darts about more than drunk men with bellies throwing things; he mystified it and made them conquerors and gladiators and sorcerers. Surely Sid Waddell is example enough that a professional level of skill at a game is no qualification to commentate on it. Commentary is an art all of its own - in the right hands any game can be a transcendent experience, made of more than the mechanics of technique and application. Sid Waddell's bravery in using such high-minded analogies and metaphors in a definitively working-class sport paid off to make him utterly untouchable as the voice of that sport for decades. He was an original. He'll be missed.

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