I know Darts is not many peoples cup of tea but the recent PDC World Championships was hailed as one of the best ever.
It was filled with some exciting, tight, back and forth battles which captured the imagination of many and thoroughly entertained the public from beginning to end.
The Championships have done a great job reinventing Darts over the years, making it more marketable to the masses. The matches now have generated a real party atmosphere with walk in music, mascots, props, quirky nicknames, crowd participation with chants and songs to boot.
People play down Darts as a sport (though I call it a game) due to the lack of athleticism needed to compete, and the fact that traditionally it is usually played in pubs. But if you ever played the game you would know it takes a considerable amount of skill.
Also the players do have physical demands due to being on their feet for a vast amount of time. With that and the increase of younger players in the game the stigma has changed.
With that being said, no matter what has changed over the years, one thing has been consistent, that is the brilliance of Phil “the power” Taylor. All sports have had a dominant champion at some point in its history, their “king” if you will, and following his historic victory Phil Taylor is now the king of kings.
At 52, after all his success and prize money combined with all the new young pretenders to his crown (namely Michael van Gerwen). He miraculously found that fighting spirit and pulled it out the bag in the final after looking down and out.
That is the mark of a true champion, in the semi-final against Raymond van Barneveld he stormed into a 5-1 lead but the Dutchman fought back winning three straight sets to pull it back to 5-4. Another player may have buckled but the power maintained his composure to win it 6-4.
He went into the final as a narrow underdog for the first time in years as the formidable youngster displayed some amazing dart throwing in the previous rounds. Van Gerwen was one dart away from becoming the first man to throw back to back nine dart finishes and was full of confidence going into the final.
Van Gerwen’s brilliance shone through early as he led 2-0 and then 4-2. At that stage it looked like there was going to be changing of the guard as even Taylor shrugged his shoulders as a sign of resignation.
But champions are made of sterner stuff and Taylor clawed his way back winning three straight sets to claim a superb 7-4 victory.
It was fitting that he came through one of the biggest challenges of his career to not only win his 16 th title but the inaugural Sid Waddell trophy, the man that was called the voice of Darts who sadly died last August.
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