Phil Taylor (dart player)

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Phil Taylor Darts pictogram.svg
Phil Taylor (2013)
Phil Taylor (2013)
To person
Full name Philip Douglas Taylor
Nickname The Power
nation EnglandEngland England
Date of birth August 13, 1960
place of birth Stoke-on-Trent , England
place of residence Crewe , England
Darts
Darts since 1976
Throwing hand right
darts 26 g Target Phil Taylor Legacy Darts
Enema music The Power of Snap!
BDO 1988-1993
PDC 1993–2018 (founding member)
Most important successes
Infobox last updated: January 2nd, 2018

Philip "Phil" Douglas Taylor (born August 13, 1960 in Stoke-on-Trent ) is a retired English darts player and with sixteen world championship titles the most successful player in the history of this sport. He owes his nickname "The Power" (English. Strength, Power, Energy) to the song The Power by Snap! , which combined with Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man also presented his walk-on music.

Career

Phil "The Power" Taylor started playing darts in the bars of Stoke-on-Trent. There he was discovered by Eric Bristow , one of the most famous darts players of the 1980s. Bristow decided to sponsor Taylor with £ 10,000  on the condition that Taylor repaid the money. With the money, Taylor was able to train more and take part in smaller tournaments. From that moment on, Taylor's steep rise began to become one of the top players and the dominant player of the 1990s and 2000s.

After winning the Canadian Open in 1990 , he was eligible to participate in the 1990 World Darts Championship. There he met his mentor Eric Bristow, of all people, as an unset outsider in the final, whom he clearly defeated 6-1. In 1991 Taylor became world number one. A year later he beat Mike Gregory in the World Cup final . He then left the British Darts Organization (BDO) and co-founded the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) . The first PDC world championship final in 1994 was clearly lost to Taylor by Dennis Priestley , but between 1995 and 2002 he won the world championship of the newly founded professional association eight times in a row. In 2001 he achieved an average value of 107 points per recording and a checkout rate of 72.5% in the final. This is one of the best accomplishments ever achieved. It was not until 2003 that John Part , who was only an extra in Taylor's brilliant performance in the 2001 final, won 7: 6 sets and thus interrupted Taylor's series. In 2004, 2005 and 2006 Taylor was again victorious three times in a row and by then could already look back on eleven PDC world championships and two BDO successes. In 2007 he had to accept his third final defeat at the PDC World Championship. There he was defeated by Raymond van Barneveld , who switched to the PDC in February 2006, in a high-class final only in Sudden Death with 6: 7 sets. At the PDC World Championship 2008 Taylor did not reach the final for the first time and was eliminated against Wayne Mardle in the quarter-finals with 4: 5 sets. In 2009 he was again in the final against Raymond van Barneveld, but this time he won with 7-1 sets.

On May 28, 2007 Taylor won the Premier League Darts against Terry Jenkins with 16: 6 legs and secured the victory in the Premier League for the third time and the winner's prize money of £ 75,000. Taylor went undefeated in 44 Premier League games. In 2008 the first defeats followed a. a. against Raymond van Barneveld on the 2nd matchday. In the semifinals he won 11: 1 legs against Adrian Lewis and defeated James Wade 16: 8 legs in the final , successfully defending the title in the Premier League.

In 2002 Taylor played a nine dart finish at Winter Gardens in Blackpool , Lancashire during his quarterfinal match against Chris Mason in the Stan James World Matchplay Championship , which was televised live. In 2004 he was able to show this feat again live on TV in Bolton during a game in the UK Open Championship , making him the first player to do this feat more than once in front of cameras ( Raymond van Barneveld did so in December 2009 and Adrian Lewis in July 2011 for the second time). In 2005 he succeeded a third time, again at the UK Open Championship . On May 8, 2007, he threw his fourth 9-darter in the International Dart League . He threw his fifth 9-darter just a month later on June 9 at the UK Open Championship against Wes Newton . On June 7, 2008 he managed his sixth perfect game against Jamie Harvey at the UK Open.

Phil Taylor (2009)

On May 26, 2008 Taylor won his fourth Premier League title in a row against James Wade in the final of the White & Mackay Premier League Darts of the PDC in Cardiff with a score of 16: 8 legs and thus secured a prize of £ 100,000 ( approx. € 125,000). Since the Premier League first played in 2004, Taylor has won all finals so far (2008). In addition, he won the final of the PDC European Championship of Darts in Frankfurt, which was held in Germany for the first time on Sunday, November 2nd, with 11: 5 legs against Adrian Lewis. On January 3rd, 2010 Taylor won the final of the PDC World Championship against Simon Whitlock with 7: 3 sets and became world champion for the fifteenth time.

On May 24, 2010, in the 2010 Premier League final, Taylor made history again when he became the first dart player of all time to score two 9- darts in one game against James Wade . In the first attempt, he went through 174 (T20, T19, T19), 180 and a 147 finish (T20, T17, D18), to be 13 legs later with 180, 180, 141 (T20, T19, D12) to follow the second perfect game on what is actually "normal" for him. In the next leg he then missed another 9-darter with the 8th dart on T17. In addition to Taylor, Michael van Gerwen also got two 9-darters in one game in February 2017 .

On January 1, 2011 Taylor retired as defending champion at the PDC World Darts Championship 2011 in the quarterfinals with 2: 5 against Mark Webster.

On July 31, 2011, he won the European Darts Championship for the fourth time in a row .

At the PDC World Darts Championship 2012 Taylor was eliminated in the second round. He lost 4-1 to his compatriot Dave Chisnall .

On January 1, 2013, he won his 16th world title in the final against Michael van Gerwen from the Netherlands .

Taylor scored his ninth 9-darter on February 16, 2012 in the second week of the Premier League Darts against Kevin Painter for an intermittent 5: 5 equalization in the legs. Two weeks later, Taylor set a new 3-dart average record for the Premier League at 117.35. At the Players Championships 2012 in Reading Taylor played two more 9-darts, on March 10 against Tony West and on March 11 against Peter Hudson.

At the PDC World Darts Championship 2014 he was surprisingly eliminated in the second round against Michael Smith. After Michael van Gerwen's victory in the final, Taylor lost his lead in the world rankings and fell back to second place.

Since February 3, 2014 Taylor has been equipped by the Target Darts company after having been under contract with Unicorn Darts for many years .

On the 1st day of the Premier League Darts 2014 he was defeated by the world champion Michael van Gerwen with 0: 7. He also lost his next two games, but was able to qualify for the play-offs in the end in third. There he lost 5: 8 despite a 4-1 lead against the eventual winner Raymond van Barneveld .

At the UK Open 2014 he lost in the third round against the completely unknown Aden Kirk . He also lost to Peter Wright in the quarterfinals of the 2014 Dubai Darts Masters . However, Taylor was able to end his short period of weakness by winning the German Darts Masters against Michael van Gerwen .

Together with Adrian Lewis he formed Team England at the World Cup of Darts in Hamburg and reached the final with him, in which they met Team Netherlands, Raymond van Barneveld and Michael van Gerwen . Taylor lost 4-0 to van Gerwen, and Lewis couldn't win any of his matches either, so Team Netherlands replaced the defending champions.

Taylor had worked on his darts with his new supplier Target Darts all year , but he never found the right equipment. At the World Matchplay , which is the second most important tournament after the World Cup and which Taylor has won six times in a row since 2008, he was finally able to compete with darts that were perfect for him. In the first round he defeated his former training partner Darren Webster 10: 4. In the second round he not only defeated Michael Smith and thus took revenge on the lost World Cup game, but also threw his tenth 9-darter on television. In the quarterfinals he defeated Wes Newton with 16: 6 and in the semifinals Gary Anderson with 17:15 and moved into the final against Michael van Gerwen , whom he defeated with 18: 9 and an average of 107, for his 15th World Matchplay title and seventh in a row to win.

At the PDC World Darts Championship 2015 Taylor easily reached the final, in which he missed several chances to make it 5: 3 and after further missed throws on the double fields Gary Anderson had to admit 6: 7.

In the Premier League Darts 2015 , The Power did not qualify for the play-offs for the first time.

In the 2015 World Matchplay , Taylor made it to the semi-finals, but was defeated there by James Wade in a high-quality encounter and thus involuntarily ended his incredible winning streak of 38 matches at that tournament. In his match against Andy Hamilton, who had previously knocked Raymond van Barneveld out of the tournament, Taylor narrowly missed a 9-darter on double-12.

At the 2015 World Grand Prix , Taylor failed in the first round due to a convincing Vincent van der Voort , although he narrowly missed a 9-darter by putting the ninth dart just next to the bullseye into the single bull.

The Players Championship Finals 2015 ended disappointingly for The Power , as it failed in Round 1 to the then reigning World Champion Gary Anderson.

In 2016 he reached the final of the Premier League , but lost it to Michael van Gerwen. At the end of September he won the 2016 Champions League of Darts . He won the first edition of the tournament and won his first major title in singles since the 2014 World Matchplay.

After Taylor had to leave the tournament prematurely at the World Championship 2016 in the round of 16 against Jelle Klaasen and especially a year later in the quarter-finals against Raymond van Barneveld, speculation increased that the 16-time title holder could step down as a professional. Instead, Taylor initially stated that he would not stop and that he would attack again until 2018. A few weeks later, The Power announced on January 28th that it would end his career after the 2018 World Cup .

The 2017 World Matchplay was the last major tournament Taylor could win. He prevailed in the final of the second most prestigious tournament of the year against Peter Wright with 18: 8, it was his 16th victory at this tournament. In three rounds before he was able to clearly defeat his long-standing rivals Raymond van Barneveld, Michael van Gerwen and Adrian Lewis.

On January 1st, 2018, he played his last match as a professional darts player. He lost this at the PDC Darts World Cup in the final against debutant Rob Cross with 2: 7. He threw 8 perfect darts in his last game in the fifth set, but missed double-12. After the final, the Professional Darts Corporation announced that the Cup of Taylor's favorite tournament World Matchplay in Phil Taylor Trophy will be renamed.

Results at world championships

title

BDO

PDC

Private

Phil Taylor has four children with his ex-wife Yvonne. He has already published an autobiography (with Sky TV dart commentator Sid Waddell ) and has made frequent appearances on television shows.

In 1999, after a show match, he took two young, drunk women into his mobile home who then reported him for sexual harassment. Taylor escaped jail time but was fined £ 2,000. Sponsors turned away and in 2001, although intended, he did not receive the " Order of the British Empire ".

Trivia

In 2004, he finished 2nd behind professional snooker player Matthew Stevens from Wales at the UK Poker Open , the highest-value poker tournament in the UK at the time .

literature

  • Phil Taylor, Sid Waddell: The Power: My Autobiography , HarperCollinsWillow-Verlag, 2003, ISBN 0-00-716821-7 . (so far only published in English)

Web links

Commons : Phil Taylor  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.op-online.de/sport/mehr-sport/kneipensportler-millionaer-581238.html
  2. ↑ Phil Taylor and his nickname. Retrieved December 18, 2014 .
  3. ↑ 16th World Cup triumph for Phil Taylor. In: derstandard.at . January 2, 2013, accessed January 2, 2013 .
  4. ↑ Taylor clarifies his future. In: sport1.de . January 1, 2017, accessed January 9, 2017 .
  5. ^ Darts: The World Matchplay trophy will be the Phil Taylor Trophy. sport1.de, January 1, 2018, accessed on January 2, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Christian Eichler: The Lord of the Arrows. In: faz.net . January 6, 2009, accessed January 2, 2013 .
personal data
SURNAME Taylor, Phil
ALTERNATIVE NAMES The power; Taylor, Philip Douglas (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English dart player
DATE OF BIRTH August 13, 1960
PLACE OF BIRTH Stoke-on-Trent , England , UK