Phil Taylor won 16 World Matchplay titles from 17 finals in Blackpool but it's the numbers behind this era of dominance which are even more mind blowing!
The Power's success at the Winter Gardens spanned 24 appearances from 1994 until his triumphant farewell in 2017 aged 56 – whilst two of his 11 career nine-dart finishes also came at this iconic venue.
Those records are impressive enough but if you take a closer look at the statistics of his performances that led to such success, then your mind will be blown. It’s mythical stuff. They’re all unfathomable and won’t be broken. Not even by Luke Littler or Luke Humphries!
In total, Phil Taylor played 107 matches on this stage and won 99 of them! He will actually hate the fact he didn’t reach a century, but nevertheless, this is outrageous.
The players that beat him deserve to be in their own Hall of Fame it’s that rare – and nobody managed it twice. Bob Anderson (1994 R2), Peter Evison (1996 R2), Ronnie Baxter (1998 QF), Peter Manley (1999 SF), John Part (1999 QF), Terry Jenkins (2007, SF), James Wade (2015, SF) and Michael van Gerwen (2016 F).
Back in the inaugural edition of 1994, Phil Taylor averaged in the 80s in both of his matches as he bowed out to Bob Anderson in round two.
Over the next two editions – one of which he won in 1995 – he only managed one 100 average and in the other seven games he didn’t really get close to three figures.
Around that period, something made him click into gear. There was a match in 1997 when he averaged 113.43 in beating Gary Mawson 8-0 and hit a bullseye in the last leg for a 10-darter. Everyone though, "What was that?" After that, his stats were frightening for 21 years of almost total dominance.
Overall, he averaged over 100 in 62 matches, including two that came in defeat, and many obviously soared well over three figures.
If you think about the supposed ‘impossibility’ of averaging over 110 in these long format matches – he did it four times and they were all over 111!
His highest was 114.99 against Barrie Bates in 2010 which was the same year he managed the record tournament average of 106.31. It's hard enough for most players to average over 100 on TV in one game! Let alone over five matches, in which he played 104 legs.
The Power's best average in a final came in the epic 2013 edition when he managed 111.23 in an 18-13 victory over Adrian Lewis, who managed 105.92 – the highest ever in a Blackpool defeat.
Of the top 10 match averages in World Matchplay history, Taylor features seven times and holds the top four places, while Michael van Gerwen, Lewis and Peter Wright are the only others to get 110.
In his 17 finals, Taylor averaged over 100 in 12 of his victories and also when finishing runner-up to Michael van Gerwen in 2016.
By the time he walked off the stage holding the trophy that’s now named after him for the last time in 1997, his Blackpool average was 100.93! Over 107 matches. That’s other worldly.
He averaged over 100 on 62 occasions at the World Matchplay and averaged over 100 for the whole tournament in 13 editions, including 10 in a row from 2008 until his farewell year of 2017.
The closest anyone else came is the fifth highest tournament average of 104.82 was when Peter Wright managed a stunning 104.37 in 2021.
If he was in his prime now and could manage that standard for the next 24 editions then despite the rising standards of everyone else, he’d still win a lot of World Matchplay titles. Maybe not 16, but probably more than anyone else.
I don't think anyone - even in this new era when more and more people are able to produce 100+ averages - can achieve these numbers on such a regular, consistent basis.
And here's another thing - the dart boards are better now than in Taylor's heyday. If a peak Power had what we all have now, then these averages would be even bigger. These boards are more receptive, more vivid and do assist people to get better averages.
It's a standard that was set more than a decade ago and even though I was playing in that era, I still can't comprehend it. Nobody has done it since, not even Michael van Gerwen.
It really is a level of dominance we’ll never see again.
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0:00 Introduction to Phil Taylor in Blackpool
0:30 How the Power dominated the event
1:09 Phil Taylor's statistics at the World Matchplay
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