They were the three amigos who brought darts into our living rooms like a playful barrage of paper planes.
But one by one, the lights on the Sky Sports producer's dashboard have gone out and the voices have fallen silent. First we lost Sid Waddell, the Geordie bard who rivalled Countdown queen Susie Dent's command of the Oxford English Dictionary with his puns, pathos and pit-village humour, in 2012.
Four years later, Dave Lanning's refined burr was consigned to the celestial commentary box – and now John Gwynne has died, after a long illness, at 77. Such was the Lancastrian warmth of Gwynne's voice, which also decorated cricket and football, that he could make a last-minute winner at Rochdale seem like a funfair ride and a cartwheeling middle stump feel like a watermill.
But he will be remembered as part of the holy trinity who made darts part of the soundtrack to Christmas, the thud-thud-thud of arrows hitting the treble 20 bed accompanied by Gwynne's distinctive “Ho, ho, ho” - rivalling Santa Claus himself. Jeff Stelling, host of Sky Sports' crown jewel Soccer Saturday, led the chorus of tributes, saying: “John was blessed with one of the greatest voices of them all, describing the action with the same wonderful blend of gravitas, humour and, always, passion.
“I was lucky enough to work with John, laugh with him, sing with him but most of all listen to him. Broadcasting has lost a special voice and a special man.”
Professional Darts Corporation president Barry Hearn, tweeted simply: “RIP John – a great member of the PDC family.”
Such was Gwynne's unassuming nature and invincible modesty that only a finite circle of friends knew his son is Andrew Gwynne, Labour's shadow health minister, who broke the news of his father's death. Now that Waddell, Lanning and Gwynne have all checked out, darts will never be quite the same again.
But in the commentary box upstairs, the party has only just begun.
