Power Surge
Simply put, Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor is a living legend in the darts fraternity. Our man Richard Lewis caught up with him ahead of the World Championships.
It is 12 noon on Christmas Day and the Phil Taylor household in Stoke-On-Trent is like that of billions across the world: used wrapping paper is crammed into a dustbin bag, children are savouring their gifts and grandchildren are not sure which toy to play with first. But there is a difference. In the garage, a thud can be heard repeatedly. It is a noise which Yvonne Taylor has become used to. When you are married to the greatest darts player in the world, making sure the turkey is turning brown goes hand in hand with her husband disappearing off to ‘work’ for a couple of hours even if it is December 25.
“It has to been done,” says Taylor. “Christmas takes part in the middle of the world championships and as along as I am still in the tournament, I am there practising. Yes, it is one of the best days of the year and yes we have a great family occasion. But I cannot let my darts slip. I might do a routine of hitting some doubles, or going for some trebles. But I am there. I cannot lose that edge.”
As Taylor—aka The Power—explains his traditional schedule for Christmas Day, he is reminiscent of Daley Thompson, Britain’s double Olympic decathlon champion. Thompson would do the same—train on Christmas Day—with his argument being that it is the one occasion each year when he knows his rivals are probably not out on the track, giving him an advantage. His two gold medals, from Moscow in 1980 and Los Angeles in 1984, were pretty substantial endorsement of him knowing what he was talking about and the fact that Taylor has 13 world titles is equal confirmation that to be a success, immense dedication is, above all, the greatest trait for any sportsman. Which, ironically, takes our conversation on to just that: the annual question of whether darts is a sport or a hyped-up pub game?
Chatting with Taylor, tradition says he should be supping a pint as we talk. Fact tells us that he is desperate for another drink because he gulped down his first glass of water without taking a breath and he is still gasping. “I could do with some more ice this time,” he says as we order another. No alcohol, practising on Christmas Day, using a treadmill to stay fit in between travelling the world playing the game. Am I really in the company of a darts player? In the past 10 years, darts has been enjoying a resurgence and it has never been in a healthier state. Taylor is a millionaire, through his success as a player of incomparable brilliance, his endorsements, and the way the sport now is played for mega-bucks. “With the regular television tournaments, there is around £100,000 on offer each month to those of us on the circuit,” he says.
The ‘circuit’ is that of the Professional Darts Corporation, which broke away from the governing body, the British Darts Organisation, in 1992.
The PDC chairman is now Barry Hearn, one of sport’s great entrepreneurs, and he has followed the success he gained with snooker and boxing by taking darts to a new and larger audience. Such has been the interest in the sport’s revival that this year’s Ladbrokes. com World Championships have moved from their ‘home’ of the Circus Tavern nightclub in Purfleet, Essex, to the Alexandra Palace in London because the demand for tickets has become so phenomenal that a larger venue was needed.
The greatest benefactor of these riches in darts is Taylor, because he is the greatest player. But he never allows the rewards to overtake why he is here. “It is not about the money,” he says. “It is about the winning.” Taylor, 47, has been a professional for 19 years, being spotted by Eric Bristow because he was making such an impression on the local scene in Stoke.
Bristow, John Lowe and Jocky Wilson were the triumvirate who would appear on our television screens regularly in the first week of every New Year when only one world championship took place, and in the days when the sport gained the reputation it still retains to some degree: being a game solely derived from a pub.
But as Taylor prepares for this year’s world championship, you realise how much darts has changed. His first round opponent is Michael van Gerwen, one of the Dutch teenagers who have taken the sport by storm.
Van Gerwen is only 18, but already has a string of titles to his name having joined the PDC this year along with his fellow countryman Jelle Klaasen, who in 2006, at the age of 21, became the youngest winner of the BDO world championship when he beat his Dutch hero Raymond Van Barneveld in the final at the Lakeside Country Club in Surrey.
Van Gerwen and Klaasen throw with frenetic speed and accuracy, and they are slim enough to be a decent marathon runner. It is why in between the hours of practising, Taylor can be found working out.
He is never going to be pencil-thin, but he says: “Nowadays you have to be fit to be a darts player. No matter what people think of the sport, you cannot go onto that stage just believing you can win a match.
“These are so many youngsters coming through that you have to be at your sharpest and the matches are so much longer now, that if you do not have the stamina, then it is not going to happen. I work out, I have gym equipment in my house, but these guys have kept me young. I will retire one of these days, maybe in five years time, or maybe when I am 60. Now that would be something, to be crowned world champion when I hit that age.
“Yet I could never have imagined it would get to this stage. It is getting bigger than it was in the 1980s. People have become fed up with all the sports on television. Darts is a working class sport. It is easy to watch. I can only tell you in my house that I have three daughters. They do not like football or rugby. But they will sit and watch the darts and that it is not just because ‘dad’ is playing.”
Much of his fresh drive and enthusiasm derives from the 2007 final when Taylor was beaten by Barneveld in the greatest match in history. It lasted three hours and 10 minutes, with Barneveld winning 7-6 in a sudden death leg. It was incredible drama and proved everything Taylor talks about: under the spotlight and with a crowd baying at every 180 thrown, lack of fitness would have seen one of the gladiators bow out much earlier.
Taylor says: “Of all the finals I’ve played in, I would probably put this one as the best. There was nothing I could do. I tried my hardest but I couldn’t quite get over the last hurdle. I really want that world title back.”
Those will be the thoughts heading through his mind during the four to six hours of practising he does each day.
He will be there, of course, for lunch at the table on Christmas Day because Taylor knows the essence of family life. He has four children— Lisa, Chris, Kelly and Natalie—and a grandson Matthew, who gives The Power one great pastime. “I am always in Toys R Us,” he says. “I spend a fortune, but hey that is what it is all about. Family is the ambition.”
An ambition which has taken this former ceramics engineer to unreal heights. He says he owns six houses. Then he stops, needing to check with his manager if it is six. It is. He has sold his two Bentleys, and the sports shop he bought in Stoke for two of his children as an investment saw Taylor at his down-to-earth best.
“I would walk in there and people would come in to buy something and they would be amazed,” he says. “But why not? I am no different than I have ever been.”
Taylor was born into darts because his parents were good players and he started the sport at a more serious level in 1986 to earn extra money for his young family.
He says: “I had two kids, another was on the way and I had three jobs: I had a normal job at the factory, I was doing bits and pieces on cars for people and then at the weekend, I was working behind a bar.
“I was bringing home £150 a week and I played darts more or less every night. As soon as I saw I could enter tournaments and win £50, I was in them.
“I met Eric (Bristow) in 1988. He sponsored me and in 1990 I was world champion. I have never looked back.”
In the greatest of ironies, he beat Bristow to lift that first world title having been a 125-1 outsider.
But even before the championships started, people had belief in him.
He says: “Loads of people locally had £20 on me to win at 125-1 and it was a great deal of money back then. I remember one lady coming up to me in the street and saying she put her last fiver on me and won £750. People in the pub where I used to work were saying they had been able to pay their bills because of what I had done.”
It all began when Bristow had seen him play. “I had been picked for the county and that was where I saw Eric,” he says. “I was a cocky little bugger and that was probably why he liked me. He took me under his wing and it sparked from there. “I knew I was good. But it is like you saying I am going to go out in my car to beat Michael Schumacher in a race. People think you are mental. “But 1990 was the turning point. I went from nothing to £24,000 prize money as world champion. About six months beforehand I had taken voluntary redundancy and I thought I would go and give it a go.”
He qualified through to the championships and as he celebrated his glory, one story stood out.
“I was on the dole when I won the World Championship and I went into the dole office to tell them on the Thursday afterwards,” he recalls. “I could not sign-on anymore. I had not got a job but I had won this prize money.”
Prize-money which has grown enormously in almost two decades at the top but Barneveld awaits him at North London’s ‘Ally Pally’ and if they meet in the final again, it could be another classic. “Ray is alright. He sulks a bit when he loses, but I don’t blame him,” says Taylor, who does some promotional work for Ladbrokes during the year.
Interview time runs out because Taylor is off to a wine bar in Middlesex for an exhibition evening. But not before one more story.
A former neighbour of his is pop superstar Robbie Williams and in the weeks leading up to the world championships, a parcel arrived at Taylor’s home.
He opened the box and inside was one of Williams’ Brit Awards.
“We text each other a lot and he sent me a present,” says Taylor. “I hope it is a good luck thing for the rest of my life. I will never get rid of it, that is for sure.”
Taylor finishes his water and says his farewell. There is a world championship not far away and he cannot wait. He wants his crown back and The Power will do everything he can to reclaim the title, even if it means going ‘to work’ on Christmas Day.
Ladbrokes latest betting to be crowned King of The Palace (at time of gmabling.com moagazine print)
| Phil Taylor | 6/4 |
| Ray van Barneveld | 5/2 |
| James Wade | 11/2 |
| Terry Jenkins | 12/1 |
| Adrian Lewis | 16/1 |
| Andy Hamilton | 33/1 |
| John Part | 33/1 |
| Colin Lloyd | 40/1 |
| Mervyn King | 40/1 |
| Michael van Gerwen | 50/1 |
| Roland Scholten | 50/1 |
| Colin Osborne | 66/1 |
| Dennis Priestley | 80/1 |
| Jelle Klaasen | 80/1 |
| Vincent van der Voort | 80/1 |
| Wayne Mardle | 80/1 |
| 100-1 bar |
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