THE DON OF DARTS!
Like cricket legend Bradman, Taylor still has appetite to succeed.. but he doesn’t rate his chances in the final
PHIL TAYLOR’S last stand tonight has the same sense of history as Don Bradman’s final innings 70 years ago.
Like the Don (below), Taylor has maintained an insatiable appetite for scoring heavily, averaging 100 and being a winner. When The Power makes his farewell walk to the oche at Alexandra Palace, it is written in the stars he will leave it with an astonishing 17th darts world title at the age of 57. Proof that Taylor is sporting royalty is the black market, where tickets for his William Hill PDC world championship final against Rob Cross have reached £3,150. Cross, who was working as an electrician until last February, conquered defending champion Michael van Gerwen in a nerveshredding, sudden-death thriller in the semi-finals, when the winning dart landed so late it was almost 2018. But tonight is about Taylor, a man so far ahead of his time that he won his first world title in 1990, two months before his walk-on tune ‘The Power’ by Snap! had even reached No.1 in the charts.
Taylor’s astonishing longevity has outlasted Roger Federer’s 19 Grand Slam titles in 14 years and Jack Nicklaus winning 18 Majors in 24 years.
He said: “At face value, getting to a world championship final at 57 is my greatest achievement of all. But, when you look at what’s happened over the past two weeks, maybe I’ve just been lucky. “All the big seeds have fallen by the wayside, and now Michael has gone, too. Let’s be honest: I’m not the best player in the tournament. I’m too old and too tired now. I’ve just been picking up the pieces and capitalising on other people’s mistakes. “My opponents have been under a bit of pressure because they know it’s my last tournament and don’t want to be the bad guy who sends me packing. “Can I tell you a secret? I’ve never really believed I can win this tournament. And I still don’t think I’m going to win it – but I am going to enjoy it.” Professional Darts Corporation chairman Barry Hearn will ban any other players from adopting ‘The Power’ nickname, or Taylor’s walk-on music, in future as a gesture to the Oche Balboa of darts. Taylor, who won his 16th World Matchplay title in Blackpool in July, laughed: “If Barry is retiring my walk-on and nickname, he must have lost the plot. “He doesn’t want me to retire, but I’ve no regrets. It’s the right time, this is it.”