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August3March 4, 2022

Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor Wins His 16th Matchplay Title In Final Blackpool Performance

One more for the road for Phil Taylor as he made his glorious bow before impending retirement.

It was the fairy tale ending we were all hoping it would be in Blackpool last Sunday as the greatest darts player of all time marked his final ever appearance in the great ballroom with a championship win. Matching his World Championship tally, victory landed The Power with his 16th Darts Matchplay win.

It was always the win favoured by romantics, but with Michael van Gerwen the current best in the world and in almost unbeatable form for the past two years, most never truly believed it would happen. In fact, Taylor began his campaign last Sunday as a 20/1 outsider, but this being the Winter Gardens, his favourite stage, there was a certain air of inevitability about how things might turn out.

Taylor grabs the momentum

The big change in momentum came in Wednesday night’s quarter final when the big two met, with MVG being cast aside by The Power in surprising and thrilling display which saw Taylor win 16-6. Mighty Mike has barely put a foot wrong in professional darts over the past two seasons, winning just about everything on the table. Here though, he was clearly overwhelmed by such a fanatical crowd as they cheered their English hero. Van Gerwen, who Taylor had branded “stupid” for using a mobile phone during his game with Simon Whitlock, refused to speak to the media afterwards. No matter.

Stoke legend Taylor has been utterly ruthless and dominant in this North-Western venue over the years, as one of only three competitors who have won the event, first held back in 1994. The other two are Dutch pair MVG and Raymond van Barneveld, and it was the latter who became the second victim of Taylor’s run to the final. Famous old foe Barney, went down 11-3 in a somewhat surprisingly comfortable victory.

Fellow Potter, Adrian Lewis was another to fall at the hands of The Power, losing by 17 legs to 9 in the semi-finals, while Gerwyn Price was shot down 10-5 in Taylor’s opening match a week last Sunday.

A legend cements his legacy

All this eventually led to Sunday night’s dream climax as The Power, walking out for the 107th time at this event, met Snakebite in a battle with Peter Wright that went 18-8 in the Englishman’s favour. Wright, hoping to claim his second career TV title, was all that was standing between him and yet another darts record. He was not up to the challenge.

Taylor, in his Matchplay 17th final, averaged 104.24 as he raced to a speedy two leg lead before winning two of the next four while Snakebite foundered. Just a few legs later, the lead, though trimmed, was still massively in The Power’s favour at 8-6. Taylor went on to win the next four legs to move 12-6 up, before Wright landed himself a brilliant but futile 13-darter. By now, 56-year-old Taylor was just four legs away from his record breaking title.

Wright then started to misfire double upon double, and before long, Taylor had landed his seventh 180 to move within touching distance, before victory was secured and history made courtesy of a double 16 in the last leg to seal his 16th title.

The Power himself summed things up, “It’s lovely, it really is and I’ve loved every minute of it. To win a major at my age is fantastic, and I’ve had a tough week when you look at the draw. I’ll miss this place tremendously. I’ve loved it here since the first time I walked through the door. It’s great to win again and it will go down in history, and I’m delighted for everyone who’s supported me.”

A respectfully upset Snakebite added, “Phil is still the best in the world and he’s showed that this week. I’ve watched Phil demolish other players in finals and I was on the other end of that big stick that he normally bashes everyone with but it was a privilege in his last game here.”

Of course, the ultimate dream would be to sign off at the Ally Pally in January with what would be hi 17th World Championship win. Currently. Taylor’s 9/1 with Sky Bet to do exactly that.

July28July 28, 2017

Phil Taylor Takes On Mighty Mike In Blackpool

By Peter FryersIn

Darts Betting Tips

It has been a superb opening first week of the 2017 Darts World Matchplay as a whole host of big names dropping out early doors. Naturally, this doesn’t include Michael van Gerwen who is, of course, still in the hunt with his usual murderous intentions.

The big Dutchman steps out on Friday against Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor having dismissed Simon Whitlock on Wednesday night as he rolls on into tonight’s quarter finals.

Peter ‘Snakebite’ Wright was the star man last night after smashing Darren Webster 16-12 in the second of yesterday’s QF games, the first being Daryl Gurney’s follow up match to his brilliant victory against Gary Anderson on Tuesday. Then, Gurney beat world number two and second seed Gary ‘The Flying Scotsman’ Anderson 11-9 and last night he followed up that brilliant achievement with another as he ran out the 16-13 winner against Mensur Suljovic.

Anderson’s defeat in the week saw him join James Wade, Gerwyn Price, Justin Pipe and Kim Huybrechts in the ranks of the eliminated and Wednesday night thinned the herd even more as Dave Chisnall lost to Alan ‘chuck’ Norris who tonight faces Adrian Lewis.

Tonight also sees Phil Taylor take on Michael van Gerwen as the old master takes on the new king of darts. Taylor it was that ended the challenge of another hero of the game, Raymond van Barneveld on Wednesday night.

This headliner event is preceded by Alan Norris’ battle with Adrian ‘Jackpot’ Lewis. Should, as expected, Lewis win, he will play the winner from MVG and The Power, while Gurney will face off against Snakebite tomorrow from 7pm.

Latest Darts World Matchplay betting odds update

No prizes for guessing the outright favourite, who is by now a super odds-on shot at 2/5 with both Bet365 and Betway. We’re talking bout MVG naturally and, under normal circumstances, a Wright v van Gerwen final (4/6, Bet365) would look the safe bet, but with Gurney in such fine form right now, he could easily make the Sunday’s final two and is 2/1 to beat Peter Wright tomorrow night. A Gurney/van Gerwen finale is worth 7/2 with Bet365.

‘Snakebite’, has a best price of 7/2, also with Betway and Bet365, for the outright tournament win, while Daryl Gurney, showing fine form, is on offer at 10’s across the board.

‘The Power’ and his strong Blackpool following will be hoping he rolls back the years and takes the tourney, and MVG before that. He is 12/1 to for the outright win and 4/1 to beat Mighty Mike tonight. ‘Jackpot’ Lewis can be picked up at 20/1 and his opponent tonight, Norris, is 66/1 with SkyBet.

May16May 16, 2017

Phil Taylor Reaches Darts Premier League London Finals

By Peter FryersIn

Darts Betting Tips

After more than three months of top darts action, we have whittled the field down to the final four for this year’s Betway Darts Premier League.

We now know the not-so-surprising names of the players who will step out at London’s O2 Arena this Thursday and compete for the 2017 Darts Premier League title.

Darts Premier League: the last step to the final

Of course, world number one “Mighty” Michael van Gerwen heads to London having topped the table following a victory over world number two Gary Anderson, himself a qualifier, albeit in fourth place.

Anderson’s countryman Peter Wright, one place lower in the world rankings, heads into the semis as League runner-up, while the old master and six-time champion Phil “The Power” Taylor makes up the numbers as the third-place qualifier.

Phil Taylor vs Adrian Lewis

In his retirement year, Taylor made sure of a London spot, his twelfth in thirteen years, following his dismissal of fellow Englishman and Stoke local, Adrian Lewis 7-5.

It might have been different, with “The Power” finding himself 5-3 down to “Jackpot” early on. However, the old veteran was relaxed enough to claim four legs on the spin and bring the game back under his own control to condemn his rival to bottom spot.

Dave Chisnall vs James Wade

In truth, there was no pressure left on Taylor by the time he stepped up to the oche after fifth-placed Dave Chisnall failed to get the victory he needed against James Wade in the night’s opener, claiming only a disappointing tie instead.

Michael van Gerwen vs Gary Anderson

The battle between the world’s top two saw Michael van Gerwen defeat Gary Anderson, playing in front of a home crowd, 7-4. While Mike had assured qualification prior to a dart being chucked this week, he did require victory in order to bag league leader’s bonus of £25,000 for the fifth successive year.

It was a victory that was never really in doubt as the Dutchman averaged 103.56 and hit four 180s on his way to a thrilling 124 checkout on the bullseye, after which he played in cruise mode, damage very much done.

Peter Wright vs Raymond van Barneveld

The night’s biggest winning margin was chalked up Peter “Snakebite” Wright who put a tiring Raymond van Barneveld to bed 7-1. Averaging 97.27, Wright showed a deadliness that can sometimes go missing from his game as Barney consigned himself to another one of those weeks.

Darts Premier League Final Betting Tips

Now that we have reached the end of the tourney, it’s hard to look away from Mighty Mike, collector of almost every PDC trophy last year.

Even when he’s off form you need guts to bet against the imperious Dutch master. That said, sport is nothing without surprises and Peter Wright has posted some impressive recent results against the champion, not least a whitewash in the European Darts Grand Prix in Sindelfingen two weeks ago.

The semis line up in order of qualifier seedings, meaning MVG meets Gary “The Flying Scotsman” Anderson before Peter Wright and Phil Taylor square off in the second match of the night.

A double on MVG and Wright to win at Bet365 returns almost evens and as such is very enticing.

The latest outright betting sees a best price of 1/2 on MVG which you can claim at Betway, who are also currently posting the best price on Peter Wright too at a reasonable 9/2.

Over at SkyBet, Gary Anderson finds his best value at 11/2, while for the romantics, Taylor is 11s across the board.

Betway are offering 15/8 on the tourney winner being a Scotsman which, with half of the competitors throwing under the Scottish flag, is tempting.

I like the look of the following request-a-bet from SkyBet: Michael van Gerwen & Peter Wright both to win, hit the highest checkouts and score the most 180s in their semi-finals all for 10/1.