The Darts World Years 2004: Taylor to Quit?

By CJ Harris Hulme 01/06/2021

2004 was a strong year for the sport of darts. Legendary names were setting new records and coverage in both the printed press and broadcast media was turning toward the positive.

Unsurprisingly Phil Taylor musing on stepping down whilst still at the top encouraged the daily Mirror to splash a big headline across its pages. While we at Darts World were a little less disingenuous with our own version.

Taylor had just claimed another World title, in a close run thing with Kevin Painter (7-6), but was already aware of the demands that darts were placing on his family life. A story that is all too often repeated, even 17 years later. 

Phil was obviously pleased with the reaction of his fellow professionals to his thoughts, with many wishing him to carry on and a few, allegedly in jest, wishing he had long since packed it up!

The story gives a clue as to dart's relationship with media. Even at such a peak of the darting year, the bigger story was both about Phil ( no surprise there at the time) and that he was packing in, rather than his remarkable achievements within the game. It would take at least five more years before the dominance and excellence of 'The Power' was the driving force behind coverage of our sport.

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Image: Darts World Magazine