SHOW MUST GO ON AFTER TAYLOR EXIT
Legend bows out as Cross takes first world title
The script was written for Phil Taylor to hang up his darts as the champion of the world then, all of a sudden, Rob Cross ripped it to shreds.
This time last year, Cross watched Michael van Gerwen win the World Championship final while sat on the sofa at home, having not yet turned professional.
Yet last night, the former electrician completed the most extraordinary debut year in darts by denying a 16-time world champion his 17th title and turning off ‘The Power’ once and for all.
Cross did not seem the least bit bothered that this was Taylor’s final fling at Alexandra Palace. The newbie nicknamed ‘Voltage’ played like an old pro, averaged 107.67 and won 7-2.
One of the former sparky’s friends had a hunch at the start of the 2017 and a bookmaker offered him odds of 250/1 that the 27-year-old would win this title. he is now in the money and so is Cross, taking home £400,000 along with the Sid Waddell Trophy.
When Taylor won his first world title in 1990, Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister, and Britain has had another five since. AP McCoy was yet to ride his first winner and Sir Alex Ferguson was trophy-less at Manchester United.
Ferguson went out a winner with the Premier League title in 2013. For Taylor to do the same, he had to defeat the debutant who has thrown his way out of anonymity.
Cross looked cool and composed. he watched his opponent’s walk-on, which was interesting to say the least. As Taylor’s trademark song,
The Power by Snap, was being blasted out of the Ally Pally speakers, he stopped to take a selfie, though seemed to struggle to work the spectator’s phone.
Cross refused to be caught up in the hype and took the first set, then the second with a 167 checkout.
Taylor gave a shrug to his supporters as he walked off stage, as if to say: ‘Well, what can you do?’
his last 20 World Championship finals had seen some great battles. his 21st was becoming another because, so far, Cross was mastering the master.
Cross took the third set with a 153 checkout and was averaging 107.34. The Power (below) was powerless.
Tickets on the black market were being sold for more than £3,000 before this final. The fans wanted their money’s worth and Taylor took the fourth set. At last, a little relief. Yet he caused controversy when caught on camera flipping the middle finger towards his entourage as he walked off stage.
In the fifth set, Taylor needed only double 12 for a nine-darter. he missed by millimetres, landing on the wrong side of the wire, and Cross still wound up winning the leg. That summed up the story so far as the underdog went on to take the set.
Another shrug. Taylor was averaging 104.22 yet had no answer as he trailed 4-1, then 5-1, then 6-1. This was becoming a battering.
The last time anyone had won 7-1 in a final was in 2009, when Taylor beat Raymond van Barneveld. he at least avoided that, making the score a more respectable 6-2.
Yet he could not half the Cross train, watching as his opponent took out 140 to become the new world champion.
And that was that. Taylor is no longer a darts player but instead a retired 57-year-old grandad from Stoke with a sizeable bank balance.