[2] He attended the local Mill Street School in Pontypridd where one of his teachers famously declared on his report card that he would be "good only for reading the sports pages of the South Wales Echo".

After leaving school he found work in the store room of a motor spares company, a job he did for over twenty years until he became a professional darts player in 1976.

It was during his time working as a store man that Leighton found the sport of darts, becoming a regular for his local pub and county, and playing for Wales in 1970.

Sid Waddell, who later became a commentator for the BBC and Sky Sports, was at the time producer of Yorkshire Television's The Indoor League – a show with pub games tournaments.

Waddell and his researchers had heard reports of a trio of great darts players in the South Wales valleys, an area that was quickly becoming a hotbed of talent for the sport.

Waddell quickly offered all three the chance to play on The Indoor League, which started being televised across Britain from 1973, and they did not disappoint, Ridler and Evans both scored a number of 180s in their matches, but although he did not perform as well in 1973, it was Leighton Rees who stole the show.

At the time the BBC's executive producer Nick Hunter proclaimed it as the match that made darts live up to all their expectations and cemented it as a National TV item for years to come.

It is because of this that he is credited alongside the likes of Lowe, Eric Bristow, Bob Anderson, Jocky Wilson, Cliff Lazarenko and now Phil Taylor as bringing darts to the masses via the television screens.