PHIL TAYLOR would have beaten Luke Littler by driving him mad with “childish pranks”.
That’s the verdict of one two-time World Darts champion as he insisted the Power would be the man to beat if he was still playing in the current era of the game.
The Nuke has fast become the dominant force after breaking onto the scene and has elevated the game of darts to a whole new level.
He rapidly became the World No1 after stunning success on the oche including two world Championships, back-to-back UK Opens and a Premier League darts success – plus many, many more triumphs.
However, Adrian Lewis reckons Taylor would come out on top against the players of today and used a Grand Slam semi-final against him as a prime example when he was hitting a 117 average – but was STILL losing.
Speaking on Double Tops sponsored by BetMGM, Lewis said: “He had a few tactics to beat his opponent before they stepped onto the oche, but in all honesty he was so good it wouldn’t have mattered.
“If you put him against the current crop now, he’d still win everything.
“Everyone says the game is so much better now, but look at the averages and they’re actually lower than what they were 10-15 years ago.
“Phil was so consistent and would still be the one to beat if he was still playing.
“Luke [Littler] is an amazing player but I’d still back Phil to beat him without a shadow of a doubt.
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“When I played him in the Grand Slam semi-final, I was averaging 117 and I was 9-8 down – what else can you do?!
“I was basically hitting two 180s a leg and losing.”
Taylor, 65, was also known as the “master of the mind games.”
Lewis remembers some of the antics he would get up to as he shared a couple of stories from missing darts cases to flicking NUTS in business class.
He continued: “He was the master of the mind games and there wasn’t much he didn’t do to us behind the scenes.
“You’d go to the toilet, come back and your dart case would be missing. He loved playing childish pranks like that just to wind everyone up.
“We were flying to Australia in business class and he kept flicking these nuts at me.
“I turned to him and said ‘if one more nut touches me you’re having the bowl over you!’
“Anyway, he stopped and quite soon after his agent, Bob Glenn, started snoring. He stopped quite quickly and I looked around and Phil had put two nuts up his nostrils.
“That’s the sort of thing he’d do – we’d have so many laughs together.”
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