Chris Johns: “The Saint”, the calm Welshman in the middle of the PDC rebellion
Chris Johns was not the sort of player who set a room on fire with big talk, wild gestures or chest-thumping nonsense. No drama act, no fake hardman stuff, no trying to look bigger than the board in front of him. He was quiet. Almost too quiet. And that is exactly why “The Saint” fits him so well.
In a darts world full of faces, noise and little mind games, Johns had a different feel. He stood there, threw his darts, and looked like the pressure belonged to somebody else.
That does not mean he was harmless. That is the mistake. Quiet players can be horrible at the oche, because you underestimate them until the leg is already slipping out of your hands.
Contents
Want to jump straight to the useful bit? Here you go, no long walk-on needed.
- “The Saint”: the quiet man at the oche
- The story behind “The Saint”
- BDO Gold Cup 1989: when Johns really hit back
- The saint in the middle of the rebellion
- The return to the BDO
- Chris Johns facts
- Setup feel: control before noise
- Can you buy Chris Johns darts?
- Pattys Oche-Check
- FAQ
- More DartWorldHub legends
- Chris Johns sources
- Official darts bodies & useful sources
“The Saint”: the quiet man at the oche
In darts, people often remember the loud ones first. The mouthy ones. The stage animals. The players who make every visit look like a small theatre performance. Chris Johns was not that type.
He had a calmer thing about him. Not boring calm. Dangerous calm. The kind where you look across the oche and cannot tell if he is feeling pressure, confidence, doubt or nothing at all.
That can get under your skin. A noisy opponent gives you something to push against. A quiet opponent just keeps taking turns, keeps nicking legs, and suddenly you are the one doing all the thinking.
DartWorldHub read: Chris Johns was not the big stage monster everyone still talks about every week. But he was one of those players who make the old darts story feel more human. Quiet outside, steel inside.
The story behind “The Saint”
“The Saint” works because it fits the picture people had of Chris Johns. Calm, fair, quiet, not trying to act like the hardest bloke in the building.
While other players showed everything — pressure, anger, joy, nerves, little bits of needle — Johns could look almost untouched by it. That kind of stillness is rare at the oche. Most players leak something when the leg gets hot. Johns often looked like he had the tap turned off.
And that is why the name does not feel like a cheap sticker on a darts shirt. It had a bit of truth in it. “The Saint” was not about being soft. It was about staying composed when the room wanted you to wobble.
Simple version: The nickname sounds gentle. The match situation probably did not feel gentle at all if he was taking legs off you without changing his face.
BDO Gold Cup 1989: when Chris Johns really hit back
If you only see Chris Johns as the quiet Welsh lad, you miss the sharp bit. In 1989 he won the BDO Gold Cup. And that was not some soft little back-room run where everyone politely moved aside.
On the way to the title, he went through names that had real weight. Eric Bristow in the quarter-final. Jamie Harvey in the semi-final. Robbie Widdows in the final. That is the part people should not forget with Johns: calm does not mean harmless.
“The Saint” might have looked friendly enough. At the board, he was still not a bloke you would want to underestimate for fun.
Important bit: That Gold Cup win gives the Chris Johns story proper teeth. Without it, people might lazily file him under “nice old name from Wales”. With it, you have to take him more seriously.
The saint in the middle of the rebellion
When the break with the BDO came in the early 90s, Chris Johns was part of that dangerous WDC/PDC storm. Today it sounds tidy: players leave, new organisation grows, modern darts happens. Lovely. Nice and clean.
Back then? Not clean at all. It was bans, pressure, TV uncertainty, money worries, reputations, exhibitions, county darts, and players having to decide whether they were betting their future on something that might not even work.
Johns was not the loudspeaker of the rebellion. He was not Bristow. He was not Taylor. He was not the man banging the table at the front. But he was there. And that alone tells you there was more courage in that calm player than some people maybe remember now.
Pattys read: The breakaway story is not only about the winners who stayed and became legends. It is also about players like Chris Johns, where the pressure of that whole mess becomes much easier to understand.
The return to the BDO
Chris Johns went with the rebels in 1993, but he did not stay on that road forever. He returned to the BDO that same year. And this is where his story becomes a lot more human.
It is easy now to sit back and say: “He should have stuck it out.” Course it is. Courage is cheap from the sofa. At the time, the WDC future was not guaranteed, televised events were not yet what the players had hoped for, and the BDO pressure was very real.
Johns pulled the handbrake. Not as some cartoon villain. Not as a big betrayal movie. More like a player who realised the breakaway might not be giving him the path he expected. That does not make the story smaller. It makes it more real.
This is the human bit: not every darts story ends with a trophy, a comeback and heroic music. Sometimes it ends with a player making the decision that looks survivable from where he is standing.
Chris Johns facts
| Topic | Details | DartWorldHub read |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Chris Johns | A quieter Welsh name, but not a throwaway name. |
| Nickname | “The Saint” | Calm, composed and a long way from stage-show chaos. |
| Born | 10 August 1958 | Part of the hard old BDO/WDC generation. |
| Home area | Aberdare, Wales | One of those Welsh darts names that deserves more than a quick footnote. |
| Throwing hand | Right-handed | No weird mystery here. Just right-handed, controlled darts. |
| World Masters 1986 | Semi-final run | He beat Eric Bristow on the way before Bob Anderson stopped him. |
| BDO Gold Cup | Winner in 1989 | The title that gives his career proper bite. |
| World Championship | Played in 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992 and 1993 | Not just a quick cameo. He was around the serious scene for years. |
| WDC/PDC split | Joined the breakaway in 1993, then returned to the BDO | The uncomfortable bit of the story, and maybe the most human bit too. |
Setup feel: control before noise
With Chris Johns, there is not one clean, widely available signature-dart story like you get with some bigger names. So we do not turn it into a fairytale. No invented “official setup”, no random dart with a button slapped on it. That stuff only makes the page worse.
What does fit his image and style, though, is a simple idea: control before noise. No material circus. No aggressive grip monster that looks like it wants to eat your thumb. More classic steel tip darts, cleaner barrel shape, sensible grip and a release that does not fight the hand.
Classic steel tip darts with a calm barrel shape and a controlled release.
Over-aggressive grip, gimmick barrels and anything that makes the dart feel louder than your throw.
Someone who wants a steady setup, not a dart that feels like a hardware-store accident.
This is style guidance, not a fake claim that Johns used one exact modern set you can click and buy.
Simple version: if you like the Chris Johns feel, think classic, calm, straight and controlled. Do not go chasing circus darts just because the product photo looks tasty.
Can you buy Chris Johns darts?
At the moment, I would not put a clean Amazon UK button here. I have not found a proper Chris Johns signature steel tip listing that I would feel good sending you to.
And that matters. Because with older or less commercial player pages, it is very easy to end up with the wrong dart, a random similar-looking barrel, a soft tip listing, or some marketplace oddity that has more guesswork than value.
Pattys straight call: no clean product, no fake button. If a proper Chris Johns steel tip listing appears later, this block can be updated. Until then, better no affiliate click than sending people to the wrong gear.
If you want to copy the feel rather than chase the name, start with classic steel tip barrels: simple shape, clean ring grip, sensible weight and no silly over-grip. The Steeldart Barrels Guide is the better next step for that.
Pattys Oche-Check: the forgotten saint
Chris Johns is not an easy hero story. And that is exactly why he is interesting. He was not a world champion, not a loud showman, not a player people bring up every five minutes when they talk about old darts.
But he won the Gold Cup, reached a World Masters semi-final, stood inside the WDC/PDC split and then made the uncomfortable move back. There is more real life in that than in a lot of polished winner stories.
For me, Chris Johns is not just “the one who went back”. That is too lazy. He is a reminder that the old darts war was not just big names, big egos and neat history-book lines. It was pressure. Risk. Money. Reputation. Human decisions. And not everyone in that story was built like a comic-book hero.
My take: Chris Johns was quiet, but his story is not small. “The Saint” belongs in the rebel pages because he shows what that messy era really cost some players.
FAQ: Chris Johns
Who was Chris Johns?
Chris Johns was a Welsh darts player from Aberdare. He played in the BDO era, won the BDO Gold Cup in 1989 and was part of the WDC/PDC split story in 1993.
What was Chris Johns’ nickname?
Chris Johns is known here as “The Saint”, a nickname that fits his calm, composed image at the oche.
Did Chris Johns win a major title?
He won the BDO Gold Cup in 1989. It was a serious title run, including wins over Eric Bristow, Jamie Harvey and Robbie Widdows.
Was Chris Johns part of the PDC breakaway?
Yes. He was part of the WDC breakaway period in 1993, the movement that later became part of the PDC story. He later returned to the BDO.
Why did Chris Johns return to the BDO?
The early WDC years were uncertain, with pressure from the old structure and not yet the big modern PDC money or TV machine. Johns returned to the BDO in 1993, which makes his story more complicated, but also more human.
Can you buy Chris Johns darts today?
There is no clean, widely available Chris Johns signature steel tip listing that I would currently trust enough to place as an Amazon UK button here. If that changes, this page can be updated.
What kind of darts fit the Chris Johns style?
Classic steel tip darts with a calm barrel shape, controlled release and sensible grip fit the Chris Johns feel better than aggressive, over-designed grip monsters.
More DartWorldHub legends
If you want to understand Chris Johns properly, you need the rest of that breakaway world around him. Different characters, same ugly darts war.
- Gold Cup path Jamie Harvey: “Bravedart” → One of the names Chris Johns had to get past in that 1989 Gold Cup run.
- Old-school giant Eric Bristow: “The Crafty Cockney” → The giant name Johns beat on the way to his Gold Cup title.
- World Masters wall Bob Anderson: “The Limestone Cowboy” → The man who stopped Johns in that 1986 World Masters semi-final run.
- Another return story Mike Gregory: the nearly-man of darts history → Another complicated name from the split era, and one of the few who also turned back.
- The full split story The History of the PDC → The breakaway, the bans, the pressure and the ugly bit of darts history that changed the sport.
- Back to the hub Stars & Legends → More old-school names, modern stars and the stories behind the darts shirts.
Chris Johns sources
These links are useful for Chris Johns’ tournament history, Gold Cup record and his place in the WDC/PDC split story.
- Player data Mastercaller: Chris Johns → Player profile with age, throwing hand, titles, major appearances and result history.
- WDF profile WDF: Chris Johns → World Darts Federation profile with results and achievement overview for Chris Johns.
- Career profile Darts Database: Chris Johns → Tournament history, recorded matches, statistics and career details.
- Split background PDPA: History / Split → Background on the BDO/WDC split and the players involved, including Chris Johns.
- Feature article Darts Planet: Forgotten Thrower – Chris Johns → A feature looking back at Chris Johns and the difficult breakaway period.
Official darts bodies & useful sources
If you want to look past the gear and into the official side of darts, these are useful sources for pro events, English-speaking darts structures, rankings, tournaments and the wider international scene.
- Professional darts Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) → The main professional stage for darts: events, schedules, scores, tickets, players and PDC tour news.
- World darts World Darts Federation (WDF) → The international darts federation, with world events, member nations, rankings, players and competitions.
- England England Darts → The official governing body for darts in England, covering national teams, world-ranked events and the English darts structure.
- Scotland Scottish Darts Association → Scottish darts news, competitions, national teams and tournament information from the Scottish darts scene.
- Wales Welsh Darts Organisation → The governing body of darts in Wales, covering Welsh national teams, competitions and world-ranking events.
- Ireland Irish National Darts Organisation (INDO) → Official Irish darts information, events and news from the Irish National Darts Organisation.
- United States American Darts Organization (ADO) → A useful source for US darts, rankings, approved tournaments, national events and American darts news.
- North America Championship Darts Corporation (CDC) → North America’s professional steel-tip darts tour and one of the key routes towards bigger PDC-stage opportunities.