Darts legend Phil’ The Power’ Taylor retired from professional darts in 2018 but made a shock return earlier this year for the World Senior Darts Championship back in February.
Nicknamed The Power, he dominated darts for over two decades and won 214 professional tournaments, including a record 85 major titles and a record 16 World Championships.
In 2015, the BBC rated Taylor among the ten greatest British sportspeople of the last 35 years. He is the wealthiest and most successful darts player in history.
The 61-year-old, born in Burslem in Stoke-on-Trent, has broken a number of records during his playing career, such as becoming the first person to hit two nine-dart finishes in the same match, while his three-dart average per match records were the highest in the game’s history.
Taylor won eight consecutive World Championships from 1995 to 2002, reached 14 straight finals from 1994 to 2007 and reached 21 world finals overall, all of which are records. He held the world’s number one ranking for thirteen years in total, including eight in a row from 2006–2013. He won 70 PDC Pro Tour events, which was a record until Michael van Gerwen passed it in February 2019.
Taylor hit a record 11 televised nine-dart finishes, and 22 overall. He was also the first person to hit two nine-dart finishes in the same match.
Taylor announced his retirement from professional darts after the 2018 World Championship, in which he made it all the way to the final before losing to Rob Cross. He labelled the game as a “miss-match” due to the differences in their ages and said he no longer had the energy or interest to continue competing.
However, in April 2021, it was announced that ‘The Power’ would be coming out of retirement to feature as the headline name in the inaugural edition of the 2022 World Senior Darts Championship, held in London, in what would be his first competitive appearance in four years, but his darts return ended in a 3-0 quarter-final defeat at the hands of Kevin Painter.
Taylor was then also featured in the inaugural edition of the 2022 World Seniors Darts Masters at the end of May. He made it through three rounds before being defeated 6-3 in the final by David Cameron.
Taylor played in competitions organised by the British Darts Organisation (BDO) until 1993. Amidst growing disenchantment with the BDO, he was among 16 top players who broke away to form their own organisation, the World Darts Council, now known as the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC).
He won the PDC Player of the Year award six times – 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012, and was twice nominated for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, in 2006 and 2010; in the latter event, he finished as runner-up, making him the only darts player ever to finish in the top two.
