Chamberlain on witnessing Painter squaring up to Taylor at World Championship: "He looked like he was just going to knock someone out"

At the 2005 World Championship back at the Circus Tavern, tempers flared between Phil Taylor and Kevin Painter and Helen Chamberlain looked back on the incident working for Sky Sports' Darts coverage at the time.

Chamberlain discussed this as part of Dave Clark's new podcast, 'Stand Up if You Love The Darts' which is released today.

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“My best memory of Kevin Painter is when him and Phil Taylor squared up on the board in the 2005 World Championship," said the former Soccer AM host.

“It was at the Circus Tavern, behind the boards there wasn’t much room until you were outside near the Sky Sports trucks.

“I was sat in the Sky trucks just watching. Keith Deller was spotting so he was sitting next to me.

“Painter had missed quite a few bullseyes in that game. He was losing, it wasn’t a close match. He was on 262 so wasn’t on a checkout. Taylor was on a checkout and finished on the bull, like a massive p***take.

“Painter had words with him and then they kind of bundled off stage. The honest truth is that Keith and I could see that something was brewing and we knew it was happening only a few yards away just outside the Sky trucks.

Painter 'exploded' at Taylor

She added that they knew the pair would then have words so ran for the door to cool the situation down in the practice room.

“We both knew there would be some windmills backstage. We ran for the door at the same time of the Sky trucks and got stuck together in the door. That’s the honest truth. Painter came out and he’d gone, he exploded.

“Painter looked like he was just going to knock someone out and I thought he’s not going to hit a girl so I grabbed him. He’s turned round and looked at me in the eyes and a ton of expletives came out. I actually said the words ‘leave it, it’s not worth it’. I’m dragging him away, dragging him away. Keith is pushing Phil back as well.”