It has to be said that Sky Sports have done a wonderful job promoting and developing a sport that has one man who dominates it so profoundly. The sport of course is darts and the man is the phenomenon known as Phil ‘the Power’ Taylor.
Taylor holds so many records that it will be almost impossible for any other player to equal or even come to close to equalling. With 15 world titles to his name and no sign of letting up, Taylor has become a living legend in a sport that grows continually and has become increasingly more lucrative for the top players. Taylor in fact has become the first darts millionaire and now commands plenty of extra revenue from TV appearances and media interest in general.
Taylor’s road to darts stardom began earnestly in 1988, when he selected to play for his County after initiating his interest in the sport at his local pub, the Crafty Cockney, owned by none other than Eric Bristow, who had by that time been crowned world darts champion five times.
Bristow, clearly spotting the potential of Taylor in those early years decided to sponsor him, while at the same time encouraging him to take the sport up professionally on a full time basis. Little did Bristow realise that it would be he that was on the receiving end of Taylor’s first world championship triumph in 1990, when the newcomer beat his mentor by six sets to one. Taylor showed even more of his potential by winning a host of tournaments in 1990, which included winning the prestigious Winmau Masters.
1991 however proved to be a much leaner year, where he lost his world championship to Dennis Priestley in the quarter final and failed to live up to past performances. He soon realised that with more dedicated practice he could soon be at the top again, proving this the following year when winning the world crown for a second time, this time defeating Mike Gregory in the final.
The well reported split in organised darts took place in 1993, which led to the creation of the World Darts Council (WDC) later becoming the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) which attracted many of the top players who had previously been, like Taylor with British Darts Organisation (BDO). However, the darts politics of that time ruled that the PDC were only able to set up their own version of the world championship in 1994, which, with much support from Sky Sports, has grown considerably more quickly and financially than the BDO.
It is during his time with the PDC that Taylor has established himself as the player he is today, his record is simply staggering. Although he lost the inaugural final to Priestley, he has gone on to win the PDC title 13 times, including eight consecutively between 1995-2002, he was also runner up in 2003, where he lost to John Part and in 2007 where he was beaten by Raymond Van Barneveld. In fact the only year that Taylor failed to make the PDC world final was in 2008, when Part won it for a second time beating the little known Kirk Shepherd in the final. Just to prove to the darts world that he was not finished, Taylor has bounced back winning the title for the last two years, with wins over Van Barneveld in 2009 and Simon Whitlock earlier this year.
In addition to his world crowns, Taylor has won the World Matchplay 11 times, the World Grand Prix, 9 times, the Grand Slam of darts , 3 times. The Darts Premier League, 5 times, the Desert Classic, 5 times, European Championship, 3 times, UK Open, 4 times, US Open, 4 times, as well as host of Players Championships up and down the country, plus a multitude of international events, which has seen him play his sport all over the world.
If all that is not enough, he holds the record of 9 for the largest amount of 9 dart finishes, which includes two in the 2010 Premier Darts League final against James Wade.
The worrying thing for the other players on the PDC circuit is the fact that Taylor seems to be getting better as each year goes by. He is now aged 50, which is considerably older than most of his leading rivals and unless he suffers from an abrupt loss in form, sometime very soon, then there is no chance that any younger players coming through the ranks will get anywhere near to his astonishing achievements.
The darts odds on Taylor winning a 16th world championship at Alexander Palace over Christmas see the Power as the 8/15 favourite with Paddy Power to win, suggesting just how big a task is at hand for all on comers, the best of which according to the odds is James wade at 8/1 and the remaining players are all 16/1 or bigger to cause what would be a big upset!
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