Part recalls 'annoying' break habit from rival Taylor: "The most preposterous one was when we had one leg left in a UK Open match"

John Part was one of Phil Taylor's main sparring partners during 'The Power's darting dominance but it was one that despite them having no issues off stage saw mind games come to the foray.

Part while speaking on The Darts Show podcast said Taylor had an annoying habit in which he'd walk off stage whether there was a break or not even when he was one leg away from either winning or losing.

“Off the board, certainly [they got on],” recalled Part on The Darts Show Podcast. “We had on-stage problems, not really where we were engaging with each other, but he had this rather annoying habit of taking breaks when there wasn’t one.

“And the most preposterous one was when we had one leg left in a UK Open match and he just walked off stage. [It was like] ‘see you later then, Phil’.

“I asked Russ Bray, who was officiating, can I go? And he said no. I was like ‘what!?’ because he didn’t know what was going on either. He won that leg.

“He did it at a World Championship, I think he did it [at] one other place as well where there wasn’t supposed to be a break. He may have just needed the toilet, I don’t know.”

“Generally, when these sorts of things happened, inside my head I would just laugh at any attempt to try and put me off,” he added.

“The one at the UK Open, there was more to the story. I believe I had a 6-1 or 7-1 lead so I’d already had plenty of time to think about how wrong things had gone."