FOR 28 YEARS, Russ Bray was known as ‘The Voice’ of darts, the man with the husky-throated ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY calls.

Whenever there were three successive Treble 20s, his signature growl – the result of chain-smoking since the age of 10 – would immediately fill the room and get sozzled fancy-dress punters on their feet.

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Refereeing in darts is one of the most complex jobs in sport because officials are “literally adding, subtracting and multiplying” all in a split second and accompanied by a wall of noise.

But as the sport outgrew smoke-filled halls and pubs and audiences started to pack out Ally Pally and football stadiums, Bray became as famous as some of the players on stage.

The role has seen him call 180s on oches as far flung as Australia, Japan, Dubai, Bahrain, Las Vegas and even Mongolia.

Semi-retirement began in January when the microphone was hung up – his last game was the epic Luke Humphries v Luke Littler World final, which was watched by 4.8million people on Sky Sports.

In his excellent autobiography ‘All About Darts’ – which is out on Thursday – the “pretty ordinary bloke” from Essex reveals his plans to take tungsten throwing around the globe in his new capacity as a PDC ambassador.

Bray said: “I’ve been a lucky sod with the best seat in the house to watch darts grow from those humble beginnings to the global phenomenon it is now.

“And let me tell you, it’s been a wild journey. Where next for darts? I honestly think there are no limits.

“What about Africa? The PDC has had two or three tournaments in South Africa, which worked well and pulled great crowds. But Africa is a huge continent.

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“I’m chatting to guys in Chile about trying to set up a tournament there. Argentina, Brazil. It’d be sensational to get things moving in South America.

“And, as far as I’m concerned, it’s a matter of not if, but when.

“Darts will reach all four corners of the world, eventually. And if I can help it along the way, so much the better!”

Bray, who grew up in South Ockendon, was an international high jumper until he snapped his coccyx while pole vaulting at Crystal Palace and was helped to hospital by Steve Ovett.

He first threw darts in 1975 and played to a decent standard, competing against “larger-than-life first generation of legends”.

These included drinking pal Eric Bristow (“a Jekyll and Hyde character”), John Lowe, Cliff Lazarenko and Jocky Wilson – the irate Scotsman was “seriously p***ed off” when he lost their first encounter.

Bray joined the Metropolitan Police after leaving school and as a traffic cop he worked during the Trooping the Colour at Horse Guards Parade, Miss World contests and was an outrider for the first London Marathon in 1981.

The other side of that job, however, left deep mental scars, seeing “awful stuff” like “mangled bodies and decapitated heads”.

He recalled: “When you’ve had to try mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on a kid who is already dead and is lying in the road as her mum screams and holds her hand, it stays with you.”

After leaving the force in 1989, Bray did security work, delivered parcels and was a driving instructor for BSM, though sitting alongside slow drivers “did my head in”.

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At the weekends, he often “drove blushing brides to the church on time” and notable nuptials involved the likes of Kim Wilde, Alan Sugar’s daughter and some Premier League footballers.

Yet it was when he made the permanent move to the World Darts Council (WDC) – the body that became the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) – that his calling in life flourished in the summer of 1996.

This followed a bitter split from the British Darts Organisation (BDO) three years earlier when supremo Olly Croft famously told the high-profile deserters: “I don’t owe darts players a living. I don’t owe them a kidney stone!’

As Phil Taylor dominated the landscape – The Power “did for darts what Tiger Woods did for golf, invented new standards of untouchable brilliance” – Bray was often by his side calling out the winning checkouts.

Next month he will not be reffing at the Paddy Power World Darts Championship.

Instead, he can watch the sport on the TV and marvel at 17-year-old sensation Littler, who “people in remote Guatemalan villages have heard of”.

Bray said: “Luke has the attributes to become like Phil Taylor and dominate darts for the next 20 years.

“Will he want to? Only he can answer that. But even in the first few months of his career, the effect he’s had on the sport is unbelievable.

“In fact, here’s a thought. In the not-too-distant future, I can easily imagine a World Championship final between Luke Littler and Beau Greaves.

“And how good would that be? I might even come out of retirement to call that one…”

All About Darts: The Ultimate Guide to the World’s Greatest Sport by Russ Bray (£16.99) is out now

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One of the most influential athletic commission directors is on Jon Jones’ side.

At UFC Edmonton this past weekend, the MMA game changed as the new unified rules went into effect for the first time. Those rules updated the “grounded opponent” rule and also removed the previously banned “12 to 6 elbow” from the list of fouls. The small but significant changes are sure to impact the way fights unfold in the future, but it’s possible that one result from the past could also be altered: Jon Jones’ loss to Matt Hamill.

At The Ultimate Fighter 10 Finale back in 2009, Jones suffered the only loss of his career thus far when he was disqualified by referee Steve Mazzagatti for illegal 12 to 6 elbows after Hamill was unable to continue. Following the announcement of the new rules, Jones made his case for overturning the result so he can have an undefeated record. And California State Athletic Commission Director Andy Foster agrees.

“The rule is what it was then. It’s different now,” Foster told Ariel Helwani on Tuesday. “It would be hard to go back. I’d be actually supportive of getting rid of that, but it’s not my decision. But I think it’s hard to go back with the rule being different than it is now.

“Yeah, [the result changed] to a no-contest,” Foster continued when asked. “ … I didn’t like the way it was enforced back then, but that’s 14 years ago. … We’re talking about 14 years later. At the time I thought there were other ways that you might could handle that situation other than just flat giving the guy a loss.”

At the time, Mazzagatti’s decision was extremely controversial as Jones was dominating the fight and Hamill was nearly out before the illegal blows occurred. And Foster agrees that Mazzagatti could have done differently.

“Disqualification should be the last resort a referee goes to,” Foster said. “That should be after you’ve used all the tools in your toolbox. We train these guys and we teach them, I know John McCarthy and the rest of the guys do, you’ve got a lot of things you can go to, a lot of things you can look at. Let’s do that before we disqualify people.

“Herb Dean is probably the gold standard of refereeing in the world right now. You’ll see him and he’ll methodically go through everything before — I don’t know if I’ve seen Herb disqualify somebody. … He’s very good at going through a lot of different things before you ever get to that.”

Unfortunately for Jones, Foster is not the one he has to convince becuase the fight took place in Las Vegas. And though Jones has plenty of support on this issue, even from some unlikely sources, for the time being it seems likely that instead this incident will live on in the lore of MMA: the only time Jones ever lost.

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Doris’ ascension to Ireland captain follows a similar change at his club with Leinster boss Leo Cullen promoting him in September after James Ryan and Garry Ringrose shared leadership duties during the 2023-24 season.

Naturally, the 26-year-old is being talked about as a candidate for the British and Irish Lions captaincy under Farrell, who will lead the side’s tour to Australia next summer.

When asked about what leadership qualities he sees in Doris, Farrell said: “He’s popular among the group because there’s no ego.

“He’s unbelievably diligent in getting his own stuff right. He’s professional and come on leaps and bounds over the past four years. He’s comfortable in his own skin.”

Farrell added: “He’s like a sponge, learning from the leaders he’s had the pleasure to sit alongside in his international career.

“He’s taken it all in. He’s calm, he’s not panicking, he’s taking it all in his stride. That puts everyone else at ease. He’s very comfortable at allowing others to lead at the same time.

“On top of that, he’s not in bad form, is he?”

Jon Anik doesn’t agree with Dana White, believing that Islam Makhachev should be No. 1 pound-for-pound over Jon Jones.

Lightweight champion Makhachev (25-1 MMA, 14-1 UFC) is ranked No. 1 pound-for-pound in the UFC rankings, which has caused White to melt down on more than one occasion. White argues that Jones is undeniably No. 1, even though he currently sits at No. 3 behind light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira and Makhachev.

Anik agrees with the UFC rankings as he thinks Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC) having not competed since claiming the vacant heavyweight title in March 2023 plays a big part.

“Islam Makhachev’s ability to find that takedown and find that submission in his last title defense against Dustin Poirier is about as good as it gets,” Anik told Kevin Iole. “For me, he was the guy going in, so I don’t know that he loses that perch for me. I have always put 155 pounds on a pedestal. I do believe 155 pounds is the deepest division.

“And part of the reason why Ilia Topuria is getting Fighter of the Year consideration, and rightfully so over Alex Pereira, is because of the depth of his division. But for me, it is Islam Makhachev every day of the week. Jon Jones is in the conversation, but inactivity, I think, largely takes him out of the discourse.”

If Jones retires, Anik OK with it

Jones is scheduled to defend his heavyweight title against Stipe Miocic (20-4 MMA, 14-4 UFC) in the UFC 309 main event Nov. 16 at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Both Jones and his coaches have hinted that he will retire after facing Miocic, and Anik thinks he shouldn’t get any flack if that does end up happening.

“If Jon Jones doesn’t fight Tom Aspinall after raising a 16th championship banner in Albuquerque, New Mexico in theory by beating Stipe Miocic, I don’t know that anybody would really judge him,” Anik said.

“Yes, the competitor that resides within Jon Jones, there could be no higher note upon which to go out than to beat either Tom Aspinall or Alex Pereira for Jon Jones, right? But the dude doesn’t need that high note. He’s the greatest of all time.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 309.

Bob Pockrass

FOX NASCAR Insider

After Ryan Blaney won the NASCAR Cup Series title last year, his father had the idea to build a trophy case as a gift to his son.

His dad, a well-accomplished racer in his own right, still has the trophy so he can build the case, but …

“He hasn’t even started,” Blaney said. “And his excuse is, ‘I need to know if I build one or two?’

“Well, that’s a pretty good excuse.”

Dave Blaney might as well wait a few more days before getting started.

Ryan Blaney will try to become the first Cup driver to win back-to-back titles in the elimination playoff era (which started in 2014) as he battles Tyler Reddick, Joey Logano and William Byron for the 2024 Cup championship Sunday at Phoenix Raceway. The driver among those four who finishes the best in the 40-car field will end up as the champion.

“It’s something really hard to do any sport, to go back to back,” Blaney said.

“You have to perform two years in a row — you and your team have to do it and have perfect ends of the year. It’s really tough. We have a pretty unique opportunity to try to change that [stat], and hopefully we bring our best stuff and have a shot at it.”

The Team Penske driver believes he has had a better season than last year, but this year he has had seven races where he has failed to finish so his stats don’t show just how much speed his cars have had throughout the year.

“We’ve had an overall way better year than what we did last year, and maybe it hasn’t shown because I’ve gotten in a ton of wrecks this year,” Blaney said. “It’s no one’s doing. I feel like us as a group, we’re way stronger than where we were in 2023. … I look at last year, we kind of caught fire at a good time, right before the playoffs.

“This year, I feel like we’ve been fantastic all year and have still gotten better through the year.”

In that championship run a year ago, Blaney won at Martinsville, a week prior to Phoenix, giving him a boost of momentum into the championship race, where he placed second overall and first among the four finalists.

Blaney, who had never advanced to the Champ 4 until last year, once again goes into Phoenix having won at Martinsville — in even a little more dramatic fashion as this time he had to win to Martinsville for any chance to advance.

So just getting to the Champ 4 in back-to-back years is an accomplishment (only Blaney and Byron made the Champ 4 last year among the 2024 finalists).

Kevin Harvick pitches a NEW playoff format the NASCAR Cup Series

Now that he’s there, Blaney should feel as if he has a good shot. He has finished In the top 5 in six consecutive Phoenix races — and in the last eight Phoenix races, he has an average running position of 5.6.

“To do it back-to-back, to pretty much have the same group of guys that I had last year on the car — it just shows the strength of everybody working together and being a family together,” Blaney said about potentially accomplishing a feat that hasn’t been done since Jimmie Johnson won five consecutive titles from 2006-2010.

“This is such a strong group. We’ve done this two years in a row. It’s a huge feat, so it would definitely be a little bit more special.”

Logano, a teammate to Blaney at Team Penske, won titles in 2018 and 2022 and didn’t even make it to the Champ 4 round the following year. He knows just how difficult it is to repeat.

“The competitors are closer than ever,” Logano said. “There’s no clear advantage in the race teams anymore like there used to be, or not as much — when you think of the old car, you’d have maybe 12 cars that can win every weekend.

“Now you have 25 cars that can win any weekend. Maybe more. So that just puts more cars within the range of being able to win, making it harder to win. You don’t have the guys that are winning eight, nine, 10 races in a year anymore.”

Blaney has won three races this year. He probably feels it should have been at least four if not more as he lost some close finishes and then couldn’t hold off a hard-charging Reddick in the top lane at Homestead the week prior to Martinsville.

Having a championship already helped Blaney handle the disappointment of Homestead as far as having the confidence to bounce back and perform at a top level in a must-win situation.

“I had no one to be disappointed in other than myself,” Blaney said. “That was purely, 100 percent on me that I lost Miami making the wrong decision on the last lap of the race.”

Blaney hopes he has the wrong decisions out of his system and that he can make all the right ones Sunday.

If so, his dad will know that he can start building a bigger trophy case. Unless he feels should wait another year.

“That’d be over the line,” Blaney said with a laugh when asked about the trophy case. “Get the two done right now [if we win] and worry about the other one.”

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.

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