Taylor: looks unbeatable

With The Power it's more like Genghis Khan looking back at how many people he's slaughtered: "We only killed 1,000 this time, so we'll have to try to kill 2,000 people next week." That's the sort of mentality Taylor has.

Sid Waddell
Quotes of the week

Did you ever hear about the elephant in the market who picked up a banana in his trunk and put it in some bloke's ear, only for the chap to realise he had been the elephant's keeper some 20 years beforehand?

Well Phil Taylor is a bit like an elephant. The Power never forgets!

During the World Grand Prix Final in Dublin I was baffled as to why Taylor was trying so desperately hard to score 180s. Sometimes the 60 was blocked but he was staying there instead of moving down to the treble 19. As somebody who rarely risks sloppy shots, that surprised me.

Then I realised what he was up to. Barney had got twenty-one 180s against him in the 2007 world championship final and Taylor had clearly decided this was payback time. He was trying to get twenty-two maximums, there's no other explanation.

There are not many sportsmen who think like that in the middle of a match. It's like Ricky Ponting walking out onto a cricket pitch trying to beat Donald Bradman's record or Ruud van Nistelrooy thinking "Johan Cruyff scored four here, so I'm going to score six." Taylor doesn't just go out there to win a match, he wants to leave a legacy and create a piece of history.

I always let The Power calm down for 15 minutes in the players' room after a match before I go and talk to him. He's usually sat there with a cup of black tea, but on a couple of occasions in Dublin he had a beer, which shows how super-confident he is right now.

His first question is never about the prize money or his shots. Instead he always asks me what his average was - to the third decimal place - and I'm sure he logs them all in his head.

You could compare him to a cricketer looking back through the records to see how his scores are improving against certain bowlers: "The last time I faced Darren Gough he got me out for 12, but I'm doing well because I got up to 15 this time."

However, with The Power it's more like Genghis Khan looking back at how many people he's slaughtered: "We only killed 1,000 this time, so we'll have to try to kill 2,000 people next week." That's the sort of mentality Taylor has.

Taylor's dominance all week in Ireland has set the mood as we head for Ally Pally and I'm struggling to see many challengers to The Power unless somebody catches him out in the first round.

Players are scared of him in the same way as people were frightened of Genghis Khan or Atilla the Hun. He has demoralised the entire darting world with his form since March and it's hard to see anybody denying him a 14th world title.

The contenders

Can any player can relax enough when they come up against The Power? I'd say the two guys who will approach the world championships in the best frame of mind will be Terry Jenkins and Raymond van Barneveld.

Naming no names, some players would be immensely angry and frustrated if they were on the receiving end of Taylor's dominance. That wasn't the case with Terry Jenkins after he was whitewashed 5-0 by The Power in Dublin.

Afterwards, Terry's mood was that of somebody who'd just been given a birthday cake by his favourite auntie. For him it was a privilege to stand behind Taylor, to see him at his best and to pick up a few shots to use in the future. The next morning he was as starry-eyed as I would be if I bumped into Madonna in a back street somewhere and I think we'll see a better Terry Jenkins at the world championships.

Raymond van Barneveld looked a bit jaded earlier this year, but he seems happier after a couple of months off. His wife had a serious hernia after the World Match Play and was wheelchair-bound, so for six weeks Barney was at home making her Edam sandwiches and acting as chief cook and bottle-washer.

With the brilliant natural technique he has, I don't think he's the sort of player that needs to practise for six hours a day. A bit of time relaxing will have done him good and as long as he does some Zen, some hovering or whatever he needs to do to relax then he should be Taylor's main rival at Ally Pally.

James Wade needs to take a leaf out of Barney's book. He punched the wall after he went out in the first round in Dublin and he needs to find a way to calm down. Perhaps hoovering isn't for him, but as a former motor mechanic he should maybe take his dad's car to pieces and spend some down time not thinking about "Atilla The Power".

My advice to James would be to make sure he doesn't show up at Ally Pally over-psyched. I thought he was set to replace Barney as Taylor's main rival, so it will interesting to see how he goes in the first couple of rounds of the world championships.

Temperament is also a key factor for the reigning world champion. I think John Part is starting to lose his rag with himself too much. It was almost like he was whipping himself in front of the nation and he needs to relax as well.

I like Andy Hamilton very much. He is making very, very steady progress, he seems to get better every time and I wouldn't say he had any temperament problems at all.

Colin Lloyd looked good in Dublin, but his problem is that he gets carried away in the heat of the match. Suddenly he'll go for 60s when he should be going for treble 19s and he sometimes reminds me of a batsman who keeps picking the wrong shots.

The Dennis Priestley story continues to amaze me. He's probably playing as well as he ever has, despite the effects of radiotherapy. Against Wayne Mardle he looked absolutely shattered, but came back in the second half of the match to win. Remember, this is a guy who humped coal bags around in his youth, became world champion as a 120-1 outsider and is now battling cancer. He would make a fascinating subject for a book.

Robert Thornton looks good, Colin Osborne looks increasingly accomplished and you always get a great game out of Adrian Lewis. Those guys will be the main men to watch in December.

Finally, I must pay tribute to the Irish crowd who were magic at the World Grand Prix.

The prize for best fancy dress goes to the five guys who came as bottles of Killian's Stout, complete with bronze metal caps. They looked fantastic, but did remind me of a gang of very tall Teletubbies.

They got into the venue at about 6pm and were still dressed in their green furry outfits five hours later, which really takes some doing. They must have been as hot as Phil Taylor by the end of it all!