{"id":5754,"date":"2018-01-03T16:17:17","date_gmt":"2018-01-03T16:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/2018\/01\/column-hr217-thank-you-philip-douglas-taylor\/"},"modified":"2024-02-14T22:22:56","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T22:22:56","slug":"column-hr217-thank-you-philip-douglas-taylor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/2018\/01\/column-hr217-thank-you-philip-douglas-taylor\/","title":{"rendered":"Column #HR217 THANK YOU Philip Douglas Taylor!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wednesday, January 3, 2018
\n<\/strong> Column HR217<\/strong>
\nTHANK YOU Philip Douglas Taylor!<\/strong><\/p>\n

The opening line of William Shakespeare\u2019s As You Like It<\/em> is \u201cAll the world\u2019s a stage.\u201d No one remembers that the Old Dart Coach – before he was he Old Dart Coach – appeared in Mrs. Warren\u2019s 9th grade class production of As You Like It<\/em> at Elmhurst Jr. High. Playing Duke Senior (Act 5, Scene 4) he emoted, “Doust thou believe, Orlando, that the boy can do all this he hath promised?”<\/p>\n

(The Shakespeare of As You Like It<\/em> was a not the William Shakespeare that invented the Level-wind Fishing Reel and Tackle Company.)<\/p>\n

The ODC loves to note that, \u201cSports writes stories that if they came from Hollywood no one would believe.\u201d The stage for the world of darts was London\u2019s Alexandra Palace, called the Ally Pally, when Phil \u201cThe Power\u201d would make his final appearance against Rob Cross in the finals of the 2018 William Hill PDC World Championship.<\/p>\n

The Hollywood scenario would have had Taylor winning his 101st TV championship and 17th<\/sup> World Championship in dramatic fashion, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. There was a touch of Bollywood with the crowd singing, dancing and costumed in the finest of fashion.<\/p>\n

That was the setup. The script was written with the champagne on ice.<\/p>\n

Beth Dunkenberger is an assistant women\u2019s basketball coach at Tulane University. She\u2019s known for saying \u201cThat\u2019s why we play the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every man, women and child is familiar with the story of Cinderella and how she turned into her \u201cthe chambermaid self\u201d when the clock struck midnight.<\/p>\n

For the PDC World Championships Phil Taylor was Cinderella. To be honest I was lucky to be in the finals – Addie, Wright, Wade and Chizzy all lost. <\/em><\/p>\n

Taylor could do no wrong as it was destiny that he would go out in style ending a magnificent career that would place his name with other all-time greats like Mr. John Lowe, Eric Bristow, Jocky Wilson, Bob Anderson and \u201cMr. Sparkle\u201d Bobby George.<\/p>\n

Faith is a cruel mistress.<\/p>\n

Back in 1990 at the Embassy World Darts Championship (Lakeside Country Club in Frimley Green, Surrey), a young dart player – Phil Taylor – was matched up against his teacher Eric Bristow who at a time (along with Mr. John Lowe) ruled the Kingdom of Darts. Bristow was the Crafty Cockney, the master of all he surveyed. Going for his 6th Embassy, Bristow would become a cropper to his prodigy Phil Taylor 6-1.<\/p>\n

Rob Cross, a 27-year-old former electrician, was the real Cinderella when he reached the final dispatching \u201cMarvelous\u201d Michael van Gerwen in a 6-5 nail biter. The final set went 11 legs after van Gerwen missed six match darts in the10th leg for the win. Taylor\u2019s semi-final win came over Jamie Lewis. Taylor dropped the first set after leading 2-0 but then took the next 6 on the trot for the 6-1 win. Young Jamie has the ability to beat anyone. To be honest when we played he let the moment get to him.<\/em><\/p>\n

In the final, Cross with four European tour wins during the year lead from the opening throw. He built a 3-0 lead which included 167 and 153 outs to win sets 2 and 3. Taylor would win the 4th set (3-0) before losing the next three 3-0, 3-1, 3-1. Down 6-1, Taylor would win his second and last set 3-0 before losing 7-2.<\/p>\n

Americans remember the great Ted Williams hitting a home run in his last at bat\u2026<\/p>\n

Taylor had a chance for a \u201cTed Williams moment\u201d in the 5th set. Throwing second, he hit 180-180-60-57 – leaving double 12 for the perfect game. He missed with his dart leaning down on the top wire. Oh yes, he lost the leg.<\/p>\n

Rob Cross\u2019s performance was dominating with only two players during the tournament averaging more than his 107.67 average for the final. In total legs, he swamped Taylor 21-10.<\/p>\n

By lifting the Sid Waddell Trophy Cross collected \u00a3400,000 – $543,516 and a meaningless 62 cents – which doubled his career earnings to date.<\/p>\n

The players (with one well documented exception) acted like true professionals. That\u2019s more than can be said for the mob that attended many sessions. The Sage of Sittingbourne Dave Whitcombe, never shy to voice his well-thought out opinions, posted, Saw some things tonight and it was an absolute disgrace. Well done Rob Cross, but the match never deserved the morons whistling and booing Van Gerwen when he was going for a finish. It seems to be a lot worse now or I\u2019m imagining it. It isn\u2019t MVG\u2019s fault he\u2019s #1and the best player. If he was American and this was in America, they would have given him the best order, they like winners, we don\u2019t for some reason.<\/em><\/p>\n

A visitor who attended the Saturday session had a similar view. A vast majority were not even watching the games but chanting in large groups and were totally disruptive towards those trying to watch the game being played. My son reckoned that a vast majority were football hooligans that had probably been banned from attending football matches and had now found a new sport to behave like idiots.<\/em><\/p>\n

When Big Ben struck midnight on January 1, 2018, welcoming in the New Year it also signaled a new era in the PDC. For 20 years, they\u2019ve had Phil Taylor and his many rivalries. Now he\u2019s gone. The proof that the PDC has moved on is that Phil Taylor\u2019s name has disappeared from the rankings. It took effect the moment the doors of the PDC office opened on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

Taylor left the PDC a hell of a lot better than when it was founded. Now, that burden is passed to others. Said Taylor, To be honest Rob Cross is a really good player. He\u2019s capable of beating anyone. Raymond and I had a great rivalry. Now, it might be Cross and van Gerwen.<\/em><\/p>\n

If you see tears they\u2019re tears of joy. I\u2019ve had a good 20 years. Of course there are some things I would change especially in my personal life which has been well documented.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cDown three nil, what were you thinking?\u201d Taylor was asked\u2026<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t lose 7-nil.<\/em><\/p>\n

The final act of the Phil Taylor \u201cplay\u201d wasn\u2019t written in Hollywood but in reality. There are few that can handle reality with grace\u2026<\/p>\n

On January 1, 2018, Phil Taylor handled the ride into the competitive sunset with style, grace and humor. There will never be another Phil Taylor just as there was never another Eric Bristow, Mr. John Lowe, Jocky Wilson or Bob Anderson. Their achievements and personalities were unique. They all had what Hollywood calls \u201cIt.\u201d So did Taylor.<\/p>\n

THANK YOU Philip Douglas Taylor!<\/p>\n

Stay thirsty my friends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The opening line of William Shakespeare\u2019s As You Like It is \u201cAll the world\u2019s a stage.\u201d 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opening line of William Shakespeare\u2019s As You Like It is \u201cAll the world\u2019s a stage.\u201d","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":17,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"howie-reed","display_name":"Howie Reed","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/111howie.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/111howie.jpg"},"first_name":"Howie","last_name":"Reed","user_url":"http:\/\/www.dartoidsworld.com","job_title":"","description":"Astute, often controversial, and always humorous, the Old Dart Coach, Howie Reed (a former rodeo cowboy and advertising executive), is heralded as the Dean of Darts Chroniclers - the most prolific and widely followed writer ever about our sport. He goes back decades with the legends and knows where the skeletons are buried (just ask any of the ADO and WDF old-timers!). Here are four well-known facts about the Old Dart Coach: 1) he is a Republican, 2) he loves the ladies, 3) he can drink most anybody under the table, and 4) he throws darts as bad as Dartoid."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5754"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6307,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5754\/revisions\/6307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5754"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=5754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}