Phil Taylor: Four more years and then I'm done
Phil Taylor returns to Wolverhampton today – and darts fans at the Civic Hall should make the most of the darting genius while they can.
Because after more than 20 years at the top, Taylor is preparing to power down.
The 16-time world champion will begin the Grand Slam of Darts as clear favourite to lift the title for the fifth time with his dominance of the sport as complete as ever.
But 'The Power' insists nothing goes on forever. And in four years' time he is determined to walk away from the game his brilliance has transcended following a deal with Barry Hearn, the promoter who has harnessed Taylor's skills to transform the face of darts.
"In four years I am finished," said 53-year-old Taylor, emphatically.
"Barry asked me if I'd do five more years and there are just over four to go now.
"I was going to retire at 55 but he's roped me in to do another couple of years afterwards, so we'll see how it goes.
"God willing, if I'm still fit and healthy, I'll do the four years and stop when I'm 57 or 58.
"If I'm not careful I'll be going up there on a bloody Zimmer frame or they'll have to have a stairlift for me!"
Taylor has been playing since the mid-1980s, when he first picked up a dart at his home in Stoke-on-Trent and discovered a talent that allowed him to quit his job as a ceramic engineer and seek his fortune on the oche.
He claimed his first tournament win in 1988, since when more than 200 trophies have followed, including more than 75 'major' titles.
The game has made his name and dominated his life, but he is adamant he will have no qualms about walking away.
"I can't wait," he said. "In a way it will be terrible, but it would also be terrible if I started being beaten. These young kids are coming through and if they were beating me regularly it would break my heart.
"I can't be one of those players who just makes the numbers up.
"That's not me. I have to go into tournaments to win them.
"I've got two holiday homes including a villa in Tenerife, so I'll be spending time in the sun.
"And I've got four grandkids as well so I'll be spending time with them and giving them a bit of my life.
"I suppose I will always be involved because the companies that sponsor me want me to be an ambassador for them and travel around the world doing odds and sods for them. There is loads I can do. I get offers all the time."
For the time being, however, Taylor remains the man to beat.
Having seen off several generations of challengers from Dennis Priestley to John Part, Raymond van Barneveld and former protégé Adrian Lewis, Taylor is now mixing it with new Dutch sensation Michael van Gerwen – and regularly coming out on top. His latest title came just six days ago, when he swept Lewis aside 10-1 in the final of the Coral Masters in Edinburgh.
And, while he is impressed by the skills of darts' emerging generation, Taylor believes the unprecedented rewards now on offer to players makes reaching the top and staying there harder than ever.
That, he admits, leaves the future of the sport uncertain when he and Hearn finally take their leave.
"Some people think it might drop off a little bit but other people think it might kick on," he said. "I really do not know.
"Barry and I will retire at roughly the same time so it will be a big change for darts, that's for sure.
"But I'd like to think darts will be healthy. There are youngsters coming through all the time, they've just got to stay there and do things right.
"It's difficult for youngsters when they're earning thousands of pounds to not go out and enjoy themselves.
"I was 30 years old when I started playing seriously so I'd already done all that. I wasn't interested in it.
"I was a bit boring. I'd be in my room when everybody else was out enjoying themselves, but I used to pick the money up and take it home.
"There are loads of good young players. It's just a matter of staying up there.
"It's difficult when a player gets up the rankings and then starts defending his points and his money.
"That's when they start feeling the measure of what they can and can't do."
Taylor's career has spanned an era of change for his sport, with Hearn's formation of the Professional Darts Corporation and the transition from a traditional pub game to the big-money spectacle that now regularly sells out arenas in Britain and abroad.
Taylor dismisses the stereotype of the pre-PDC player as a beer-swilling pub-goer.
"I don't know about the older players like Eric Bristow and John Lowe but it certainly wasn't true for my generation," he said.
"You would never see us in a pub. I went in a pub once or twice a year at most."
But he accepts the image of the players has been transformed since the top few broke away from the British Darts Organisation in the early-90s and took the game in a different direction with bigger prizes funded by satellite TV coverage, more glitz and bigger, noisier crowds.
"My grandkids go to school and they say I've become trendy, whatever 'trendy' is," said Taylor.
"I think that's what has changed. Kids like us now and we get a great audience all across the board, from young kids to pensioners.
"Beforehand it was a certain age group. Barry Hearn did a survey recently and I think the average age of a viewer now is between 18 and 27. We have become trendy.
"Most darts players now have paid their mortgages off and are setting themselves up for life.
"I have done really well out of it, which is magic. It has set my family up for life and that's all you can hope for really.
"Barry said last week that it's the first time in history that a professional snooker player would want to become a darts player.
"Barry is Barry. If you don't want to do something he will say: 'Don't do it, but the offer is there on the table.'
"You get rewarded for your performance – our job is performance-related – and the opportunity is there for you.
"Barry's attitude is if you don't want to do it that's fine, because there are probably 500 people out there that do, which is good motivation. In the past the World Championships was played in front of about 800 people. Now we probably have an average of about 8,000.
"The days of fans being quiet are gone now and you adjust.
"You either sink or swim and if you let it get on your nerves you will lose.
"Sometimes it affects you when you are struggling, but when you're playing well there could be a drummer on stage and it wouldn't bother you.
"It's all about how you feel, but I've got used to it after 15 years.
"Nothing comes easy and every job has its ups and downs, but the crowd are part of it and we've gone to places where the crowd are quiet and the players hate it.
"You like it when they're screaming and shouting."
For Taylor, the Hearn-inspired revolution allowed him to turn his talent into a fortune.
And the most decorated player of all time admits his earnings have surpassed his wildest dreams.
"I thought I would make a living out of the game, but I thought I would just make enough to survive, look after the family and pay the bills," he admitted.
"It was a better living than working in a factory, but did I think I'd get to this height? Never.
"I knew if we got a good promoter like Barry Hearn involved the game could rise and make more money, but never in a million years did I think it would be like this.
"Last week in Edinburgh we got £5,000 for first-round losers.
"Years ago we got £500 and thought we were millionaires.
"I used to work my socks off as an engineer for £74 a week and I had to pay tax on that." The PDC circus brings Taylor back to the West Midlands this week for a tournament that is close to his heart as he gears up for a tilt at a 17th world title at Alexandra Palace in London over Christmas and New Year.
The Grand Slam, which uniquely brings together the best players from the PDC and the largely amateur BDO, runs for eight days in Wolverhampton.
And, aside from the chance to reclaim the trophy he won in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2011, Taylor has a couple of other reasons to relish his return to the Civic as he seeks to reclaim the title from van Barneveld.
"It is brilliant for me," he said. "This is like my home ground.
"I love the Grand Slam because it's only half an hour away from where I live.
"And there is a little hot potato van in the town centre where I have my dinner every day!
"I hope he's still there. He's right in the middle of the town centre.
"I have a potato off him every day – myself and my mate Mick, who comes with me from time to time.
"I would put the Grand Slam about third in the list of tournaments.
"There are the World Championships and there is Blackpool, and everybody loves Blackpool and the World Matchplay.
"I would say the Grand Slam is next, if not maybe even as big as Blackpool. You can tell it's big because of the reaction you get when you win something like the Grand Slam, and it's the best of both sides of darts, so that makes it a little bit extra special.
"I love the venue as well. It's an old building and I've been in there when it's empty and walked inside, where the tables and chairs are, and even then it's got a lovely atmosphere.
"Old buildings seem to have that 'old worldly' quality about them and it's got a lovely feel about it.
"The Winter Gardens in Blackpool are the same. They have lovely atmospheres about them when they're empty, so when they're full they buzz. And it gets louder the later in the night you play."
So Taylor arrives in Wolverhampton with the end to his remarkable career in sight, albeit still little more than a speck on the horizon for now.
But rivals who will count down the days until he is gone should not begin celebrating the start of a wind-down from the man whose insatiable appetite for winning has ground so many challengers into the dirt.
The Power insists his motivation to keep winning remains fully charged. Just don't ask him to explain how he keeps it going.
"Where does it come from?" he says with a hint of shock in his voice. "You just have it in yourself. It's within you.
"You have other sportspeople who are the same – people like Roy Keane, Stuart Pearce and Tony Adams, who don't need motivating.
"They are the same whether they're playing for 10p or £10m – the game is the game and it's your reputation that's at stake.
"It seems like a daft question for me really, and I get other top sportspeople asking it to me.
"I just think: 'How can you not be motivated? It's your bloody job! It's your reputation!'
"You've got your fans and your family to think about and all those people who are betting good money on you, plus all your sponsors whose products you're endorsing.
"If they're spending thousands upon thousands on you, you've got to give them the best show possible."
The William Hill Grand Slam of Darts will take place from today until November 17 at the Wolverhampton Civic Hall.
Tickets are available from www.wolvescivic.co.uk or by calling 0870 3207000.
