Power to be switched off

Phil Taylor will embark on a year-long tour of celebration after announcing his darts career will end after the next World Championship.

Taylor, the 16-time world champion and undisputed greatest player of all-time, announced he was quitting the sport’s main tour on Saturday.

At 56 and with every achievement in the sport ticked off, ‘The Power’ has decided he will turn himself off after the Alexandra Palace showpiece in December and January.

‘‘It’s the last year for me, this will probably be my last Masters so at the end of the year, that’s me done,’’ he told ITV Sport at the Masters event in Milton Keynes.

‘‘The World Championship will be my last one and I’m looking forward to it now, I’m really looking forward to it. Last one, January, that’s it, no more.’’

Taylor - already the most popular player on the planet - can expect a raucous send-off for the rest of 2017.

Commitments in events such as the Premier League will allow darts fans all over the country to say farewell to the man more responsible than anyone for the popularity darts now has.

Once regarded as a pub sport played by beer-swillers in smoky rooms, it is now played out to live audiences of thousands and TV audiences of millions, thanks in no small part to Taylor’s enduring success and popularity.