Darts competitor thrives on pro circuit

Rob Miech

Peter Manley first got into pro darts to see the world with his wife and have some fun. Along the way, he became a world champion, but he continues to have loads of fun. He’s grateful for everything the sport has given him.

By Rob Miech (contact)

Friday, July 3, 2009 | 1:02 p.m.

Peter Manley couldn’t believe his good fortune. Darts had steered him from running that newspaper and magazine shop to semi-stardom, and a tournament in China.

Then he came upon the raggedy man, sitting cross-legged and selling apples out of a bowl, in grimy, industrial Shantou, in Guangdong Province.

“To see that poverty … you appreciate where you’ve actually come from and what you’re doing,” Manley said. “It was quite sad, in this day and age. I thought of my success and how grateful I am to be where I am.”

Manley and Dave Allen, the media officer of the Professional Darts Corporation, strayed off the streets and found chickens being decapitated and hanging upside down, to facilitate bloodletting.

“A lot of poverty,” Allen said. “It was incredible.”

Manley describes his journey from that little shop, where he also sold confections and Mr. Porky pork scratchings, as incredible.

Thursday, when he defeated Mark Walsh in the first round of the Las Vegas Desert Classic at Mandalay Bay, Manley and wife Crissy celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary.

He asked the former Crissy Howat, once a top-ranked women’s player, to marry him after he won the Desert Classic in 2003. A year later, they tied the knot in Las Vegas.

Friday, Manley, one of the PDC’s more outlandish characters who has stood out among his peers in his big pink Mr. Porky shirt for two years, was dispatched from the Classic by Adrian Lewis, 8-1.

What started as a way to maybe see the world with his wife has turned into a lucrative profession, and Manley has invested wisely should it turn south tomorrow.

“What happened is, we got sucked into success,” he said. “I didn’t know how successful I’d be. I could have been run of the mill, which, unfortunately, a lot of these players are. But I was good. I got to world No. 1.

“It changed our lives completely. When I knew I could do it on the big stage, it transformed me life.”

He’s been an easy target for some fans on that stage, and not just because he’s a big pink bull’s-eye.

“It’s stunning,” Manley admitted. “The thing is, when we play in an event with 300 or 400 people there, my wife can find me without a problem.”

Manley has jousted with Wynand Havenga and Lewis, but he said the bevy of boos he often hears stems from a 2002 incident with Phil “The Power” Taylor.

Taylor blanked Manley, 7-0. Afterward, Manley refused to shake Taylor’s hand.

“Actually, I thought he was a bit naughty during the game,” said Manley, 47. “I really didn’t want to show him any respect. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t the best sporting thing I’ve done. I’ve fully admitted that.

“I’ve apologized to Phil on TV many times. Thing is, people don’t forget. Hopefully, I’ve turned people around. Now it’s just a little bit of fun. They see a different side to Peter ‘One Dart’ Manley.”

He earned that moniker by consistently hitting his doubles, required to close out each game, on his first attempt.

Manley, however, has taken a liking to another nickname.

“I like to be the ‘Pantomime Villain,’ ” he said. “It’s a bit of fun. People boo me. I play better when people are hating me. They call me the ‘Pantomime Villain,’ the bad guy that everyone boos.

“But he’s the best guy, at the end of the day.”

At the end of Thursday, Manley came clean about Taylor.

“I can beat Phil Taylor, but he has had great consistency over a period of time,” Manley said. “He’s proven himself, as a 14-time world champion. I probably haven’t got that durability or need or demand or want to be that.”

Taylor blasted Dennis “The Menacs” Priestley, 8-0, earlier Friday.

“The man just keeps raising the bar in every tournament,” Manley said of Taylor. “He’ll get beat, but he comes back stronger and stronger and stronger. He’s getting 115 and 120 averages now? That’s phenomenal.”

He counts some of his peers as fans, which is buoyed by his six-year run as chairman of the Professional Dart Players Association. Good-time Peter is more about fair play and professionalism than most know.

“I help people,” Manley said. “I try to do things as best and fair for everyone who plays in our organization. I just love the game.”

He loves his many die-hard fans, too. Thursday, he breezed by a post-match media gathering in a ballroom to zip into a hall and mix and mingle with his crew.

He signed autographs and posed for photographs for more than 30 minutes, giving them every second they wanted.

“If I stopped enjoying it, I’d have to pack it in,” Manley said. Now that he is out of the tournament, he said, “I will make sure that me and my wife have a great time in Vegas.”

In that big pink shirt, he’ll be easy to spot on The Strip.