"I held it together better than Phil Taylor, I absolutely did" - Mardle reminisces on epic World Championship win over 'The Power'
PDCThursday, 03 August 2023 at 12:00
Wayne Mardle did not manage to win a single PDC major during his career, although he came particularly close a few times.
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Mardle played three major finals (World Matchplay and twice Las Vegas Desert Classic), but lost to Phil Taylor each time. At the 2008 PDC World Championship, he finally managed to beat Taylor in an epic quarter-final tie.
With Dan Dawson, Mardle looked back on that victory. "What you may not know about this is, that when I was 3-0 down in sets, I've gone off stage and said 'right that's it. I've had enough, he's getting it!'"
"It's quite funny, when I actually won, my first thought was don't show off shake Phil's hand. Then I started crying," he laughs. "But it was an emotional game! I was losing, losing, losing, then I was winning, then he came back at me. The last set went so long. "
Winning 5-4 it was arguably the biggest victory of Mardle's career. "I remember feeling 'I'm better than you today.' I'd never seen Phil that flaky, his guts had gone," he says. "I held it together better than Phil Taylor, I absolutely did. Not because I won but because I did and I get a lot of satisfaction out of that."
Sadly for Mardle that victory couldn't fire him towards World Championship glory as he slipped to a disappointing defeat to Kirk Shepherd.
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Kieran WoodDarts Journalist
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He contributes to DartsNews.com, where he covers professional darts through news, match reports, analysis, and live coverage across the PDC calendar and major tournaments.
A key part of his work is on-site reporting from leading events. Kieran has covered the PDC World Darts Championship in person, reporting daily from the venue and providing first-hand insight from the tournament. During his coverage, he has conducted interviews with leading players including Luke Littler, Luke Humphries, and Gerwyn Price.
He is also one of the leading voices of the English-language Dartsnews Podcast, contributing regular analysis and discussion on developments across the professional darts circuit.
In his reporting, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles when new, verified information becomes available.
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- I appreciate that littler is a fantastic player,but the top 3 articles are about him. Before he'd thrown a dart in the tournament. Level it out a bit, Taylor and van gerwen soon got disliked as the media could only see them,and nobody else seemed to matterrick6725-08-2026
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