Taylor looks back on history making Premier League nine-darter double: “I wasn’t thinking about making history, not in the slightest”

With the Premier League Darts set to resume next week with this years tournament concluding, Phil Taylor’s double nine-darter against James Wade will always stand out.

It’s now 10 years ago that Taylor hit the epic two nine-darters in a game against ‘The Machine’ and in an in-depth Q&A with Oche, he discussed his memories of the time.

“Do you know what sticks in my mind, John McDonald showed so much bottle. He had to go outside with three and a half, four thousand people and tell them ‘it’s off’, said Taylor to Oche.

“He was saying ‘it’s not my fault, I’ve not turned the plug off’. It was just one of those things, bless his heart. Because everything has to reset itself, they couldn’t put it back on again so they had to wait until the next day.

“To be honest with you, nine-darters in that game, you could have done eight nine-darters it wouldn’t have made a scrap of difference. It still would have been 10-8.

“It was one of those games. I remember coming off for a break and telling Rod Harrington there could be two nine-darters in this game.

“I wasn’t saying that I was going to hit them, maybe get one each. We were both practising and playing that well and both full of confidence.

“The crowd, I wouldn’t say 50/50, I’ve played in good atmospheres but the atmosphere was probably the best I’ve ever played in.”

Defeating Wade at forefront

For Taylor though, it wasn’t about making history, it was about defeating a Wade towards the peak of his powers.

“I wasn’t thinking about making history, not in the slightest. I was more worried about winning the tournament. James was playing that well. Once you play in the semi-final and you know you are playing well and a massive average, that’s a massive shot over their bows,” he continued.

“You want your opponent to play well because you want a decent game. The games where I’ve won five or six nils, they’re not really good. It’s not nice to be involved in. If you win the World Final 7-0 great but you want a bit of a battle. You want to entertain the crowd. The atmosphere there was so good.

“The second nine-darter made me realise a bit. The first one he went out 136 in 12 and then I did a nine-darter but it’s only one leg all.

“Oh well. If it had been a £50,000 cheque for hitting a nine-darter, I’d have been nervous then. You don’t think about it, you just get ready for the next leg.”