Despite the aptly-named venue, there were no nine-darters, but The Power displayed moments of brilliance during 14 legs of darts, with half a dozen or so 180s, a 12-dart leg and a checkout of six (three double ones).
He said: “Next year I’ll probably be doing 150 nights on the road. The worst thing I did was announce my retirement and give it 12 months, because that means you have to work your notice.
Taylor also admitted he had been offered “a lot of money” to swap the oche for the Australian Outback by producers of ITV’s I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!
One of the 14 darters who claimed a surprise ‘victory’ over the Stoke great was Ulverston’s ‘Champagne’ Stevie Woodburn, who took out his favourite double 13 after The Power let him remove a number off his score of 256.
“But I managed to go up there and beat my demons and in doing so, beat The Power as well.”
Nines manager, Gary Wood, said: “I have wanted to get Taylor here for a while, especially after having the likes of MVG (Michael Van Gerwen) and Barney (Raymond van Barneveld) here in the past. He seems really down to earth, you can tell who the divas are, but all Phil wanted was a glass of wine and a few bottles of water. I would definitely hope to have Phil back.”
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