Andy Fordham's Biography
Darts player Andy Fordham was born on 2 February, 1962 and grew up in South East London.
Andy Fordham, nicknamed 'The Viking', used to be known as 'The Whippet', and was actually thin in his youth before he suffered an injury playing football.
It was football that led Fordham to darts. He played for The Angerstine Hotel football team and got drafted into the darts side. He progressed to the Kent Super League and on to Kent county level.
After a couple of moves to London and Scotland, Fordham was back playing darts for Kent. However he did not play for the first team of The Rose pub in Dartford, which he ran with his wife, Jenny. As the 'A' team was already set up, Fordham played for the 'B' team!
Andy and Jenny got engaged way back in 1980, but it wasn't until May 27, 2000 that they got married. Andy Fordham's measurements at the time were a 56in waist and a shirt measurement of XXXXXL.
Andy Fordham became a contestant on Celebrity Fit Club, weighing in at over 30 stone and regularly drinking 25 bottles of lager a day. By the end of the series Andy Fordham had shed 42lbs of his excess 19 stones. He was described by the show's presenter Dale Winton as 'the nation's favourite'.
Andy Fordham was one of dart's most popular players and in 2004 he won the British Darts Organisation (BDO) Lakeside world championship as well as being a four-time semi-finalist. However, Fordham was knocked out in the first round of the 2005 BDO World Championships by Vincent van der Voort. Fordham had broken his wrist at the back end of 2004 and it had affected his preparation.
It had been a difficult time for Fordham. In November 2004 he pulled out of the heavily-publicised contest, billed as 'The Showdown', with PDC rival Phil Taylor.
Taylor was leading when Fordham was having difficulty breathing and suffered an asthma attack.
Fordham looked back on track, helped by the Celebrity Fit Club programme, when he reached the final in February 2005 of the Masters of Darts, but he lost heavily to Taylor, 7-1, in the final.
In January 2007, Andy Fordham fell ill at the Lakeside World Darts Championship. Fordham had a serious chest infection and had to have fluid drained from a lung. The BBC reported that Andy Fordham's wife was hoping he would be out of hospital in time to visit the Lakeside.
In February 2007, Andy Fordham suffered a mild stroke.
In November 2007, the BBC reported how Andy Fordham had lost 10 stones and was returning to competitive darts.
In December 2007, he lost 5-0 to Mark Barilli in the Zuiderduin Masters event in Holland.
On 19 December 2009, The Mirror reported that Andy Fordham would miss the Ladbrokes.com world championship having won just £800 prize money in a year and fallen down the rankings to 213 on the PDC order of merit.
He died on 15 July 2021, aged 59.
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