DARTING legend Dennis ‘The Menace’ Priestley has taken a step away from the oche in recent years but he’s hoping that Luke Littler can continue to grow the sport even further – potentially even inspiring a young darts star from Barnsley to rise through the ranks.

Dennis is a two-time world champion and was the first player to win both the BDO and WDC (now PDC) world championships in 1991 and 1994.

Priestley won the 1991 Embassy World Championship, after beating Eric Bristow in the final and earning £27,000 in prize money.

He then beat Phil Taylor in the 1994 World Championships, earning £16,000 as the champion – but he says he and Taylor had an arrangement for a number of years where they would split the prize money.

But with this year’s world champion set to take home £1m, he admits he’d quite like that working relationship now.

He told the Chronicle: “Me and Phil used to share. When I won it in 1994, we shared £25,000.

“Had we been playing together this time, we’d be sharing more than £1m.

“Things have got more expensive in the last 30 or so years, things like buying a car.

“But from £25,000 to £1m, I don’t think that cars have gone up that much in price.”

Dennis said he hasn’t picked up a dart in the last four years and admits that the players during his day would struggle against some of the big hitters now.

He added: “Players are hitting 100 averages regularly.

“We used to do it, but not in every game.

“Saturday will be four years since I did my last exhibition and I’ve not picked up the darts since.

“I miss going to demonstrations because you were meeting a lot of people.

“I still remember four years ago I hit five or six 180s and two or three double, double finishes. There was still a bit there.

“But during Covid I lost my mate Trevor who used to drive me all over for the last 20 years. It just wasn’t the same and I said to my wife that I’m not bothered and I’m going to call it a day.”

Dennis, although from Mexborough, is a huge Barnsley FC fan.

The number of good darts players to come out of Barnsley have been few and far between.

Brian ‘Doggy Dawson’, from Thurnscoe, qualified for the BDO World Championships in 2015, 2016 and 2017 while Darfield’s Carl Wilkinson is currently ranked 114 in the WDF rankings.

But Priestley says he can’t quite put his finger on why there hasn’t been a huge darts star to come out of the town.

“At one time it seemed like all the best players were coming out of Stoke,” he said.

“You had Phil Taylor, Adrian Lewis and now it seems to be areas like Widnes and Warrington.

“I can’t quite put my finger on why that is.

“Yorkshire’s always been a hotbed of darts, but not particularly Barnsley.

“It’s been more Doncaster.

“I’m not blowing on my own trumpet, but you’ve got to have something really special to be competing at the very top level.”

Barnsley Metrodome had hosted PDC tournaments since 2009 but the organisation cut ties with the venue in 2023 due to the space available.

Taylor won three ranking tournaments in Barnsley and Michael van Gerwen 12.

Big names like Michael Smith, James Wade, Gary Anderson, Adrian Lewis, Peter Wright and Raymond van Barneveld also won tournaments there.

Joe Cullen, Luke Humphries, Daryl Gurney, Nathan Aspinall and Simon Whitlock all won their very first PDC title in Barnsley.

And it brought a buzz to the town, with some of the biggest stars on the planet in and around the town centre.

Priestley admits it’s a shame that the contract was terminated.

He said: “It’s a real shame.

“It was brilliant that darts was being played in Barnsley.

“But it got to a situation where it just wasn’t big enough.

“For normal people as well, not seeing the stars walking about in the town centre is a big miss.”

There’s no doubt that Luke Littler has taken the world by storm in the past few years.

Dennis said he’s a ‘breath of fresh air’ and is one of the main reasons why so many young people are getting into the sport.

But he’s not sure if he’ll even need to equal Taylor’s record of 16 World Championships.

He said: “When Taylor packed the limelight of darts could have easily faded away.

“But Littler’s been like a gift from the Gods.

“He’s a talent we’ve not seen for many a year.

“He’s as good as Taylor but will he last?

“Will he have the longevity to do what Taylor did?

“I always say he’ll not want to play 20 years because he won’t need to.

“If he does what Taylor has done, he’d need to get to 2040.

“If it’s £1m now for the prize money, what’s it going to be then?

“He won’t need to do it.”