Darts 101- The Bio on Phil “The Power” Taylor
Philip Douglas Taylor is a professional darts player widely recognized not only in UK where he is from, but also the world of darts, as the greatest who ever played.
He is nicknamed The Power because every winning he has achieved by now is twice more than any other champion has achieved – PDC world champion, 2 BDO and 13 PDC and more than 150 professional tournaments. He is ranked since June 2008 as the number one in the PDC Order of Merit in the whole world.
His parents Eileen and Robert Taylor established in Burslem, Stokeon-Trent, had Phil in 1960, 13th of August, and it is the same place where he decided to leave school at 16 of age and then got a job at JF Sale and Co. Between jobs, Taylor always showed a great interest in playing darts which was in fact his hobby.
Playing in the pubs was the thing that made him being remarked by Eric Bristow who was very famous in the 80s, him being the one who decided to sponsor Taylor but to be later repaid. With this amount of money Taylor has undergone a lot of practicing in order to be taken in low level tournaments.
Till he reached the year of 1990 he was already qualified for the first time in the World Championship taking the lead over Dennis Hickling, Russell Stewart, Ronnie Sharp and Cliff Lazarenko. The finals brought him in front of his mentor beating Bristow 6 sets to 1 with titles of 125/1 odds. He contributes a lot to the editions of “Darts World” magazine. 2002 saw him winning the world professional arts crown on 10 times and step b step others followed, including 5 World Matchplay titles.
His nickname, ‘The Power’ is due to the scoring he has performed revealing him with accurate and agile hittings for the high checkouts. On august the 1st, 2002, he managed to hit a brilliant nine-dart leg of 501 darts while the show was televised as the encounter in Blackpool – Lancashire at PDC World Matchplay Championships. This one brought him a £100,000 pay bonanza and a place in the periodicals of darts’ history being the first one to hit the nine darter during a live broadcast through satellite.
Unfortunately “The Power” Phi Taylor was defeated i January 2003 by the Canadian John Part in the final part of the PDC World Professional Darts Championship that was held at England’s Circus Tavern, Purfleet. This defeat was the one to end his eight year run of world title winning successively.
In the Queen’s New Years Honors List of 2000 he was awarded the Member of the Order of the British Empire for his services brought to sports but it was annulled as he has assaulted two female fans in 2002.