But I can run fine, and that’s the most important thing.”Brown, who has spent his 13-year career in Oakland and has a career-high 11 touchdown receptions this season, last appeared in the play-offs when the Raiders lost 29-23 to the Buffalo Bills in an AFC divisional game.”I don’t want to think about that,” he said “That was a bad Sunday.”. Phil “The Power” Taylor, the finest player ever to throw a dart at a board, won his seventh consecutive world championship – his ninth in all – with an extraordinary performance at the Circus Tavern last night. He whitewashed John Part, himself a former world champion, by seven sets to nil, scoring an average of 107.5 with every three darts. In the Skol World Championship, it’s over as soon as the fat man starts throwing. Phil “The Power” Taylor, the finest player ever to throw a dart at a board, won his seventh consecutive world championship – his ninth in all – with an extraordinary performance at the Circus Tavern last night. He whitewashed John Part, himself a former world champion, by seven sets to nil, scoring an average of 107.5 with every three darts. In the Skol World Championship, it’s over as soon as the fat man starts throwing.
Part, with a respectable three-dart average of 92, did not play badly.
Taylor, though, was irrepressible, winning 21 of the 24 legs played, and at one point reeling off 13 in a row. It is now arguable whether any British sportsman of the modern era has dominated his profession so completely.At times, Taylor seemed to be toying with his opponent, confident that he could raise his game still further if Part ever threatened to be the first to a shot at a double. On the rare occasions when he had a chance to win a leg, the Canadian’s aim was rarely accurate, almost inevitably allowing Taylor to pounce.Highlights of Taylor’s performance included a 167 checkout – the highest of the entire tournament – and a 10-dart finish, just one arrow adrift of the ultimate nine-dart leg. A perfect finish would have earned him a further £100,000 on top of the first prize of £33,000, and it was the only thing missing from an otherwise sublime performance.Taylor has now been beaten just once in 38 matches at the PDC Championships at Purfleet and, while another world champion will be crowned following the Embassy tournament at Frimley Green next week, there is in truth only one champion. Not only was Taylor’s scoring remorseless, with five maximum 180s and almost too many 140s to count, his finishing too was almost flawless.”Playing Phil is completely oppressive,” Part said afterwards. “He really killed me with his outshouts, his doubles percentage must have been around 80 per cent, which is ridiculous.
It takes away your hope when a guy never misses a double.”Taylor dropped just a single set on the way to yesterday’s final, and the on-site bookmakers made the 7-0 whitewash no better than a 9-2 chance before the match started. Those who had backed him to win with the minimum of fuss did not have a single moment of concern.It was not a particularly competitive spectacle for the 1,000 capacity crowd at the Tavern, but there were few complaints. Most were glad to be on an evening when Taylor took darts to a new level, and few would bet against The Power, who is now 40 years old, adding half a dozen more championships to his total before his throwing arm begins to feel the passage of time.Taylor’s next major engagement will be at Buckingham Palace, when he receives the MBE he was awarded in the New Year’s Honours list. “I’ve not slept for a month thinking about it, it’s the biggest thing that’s ever happened to me, to be honest,” he said afterwards, “but I’ve really been practising too, and it all paid off.”The one time this week I got really nervous was against Les Fitton, but I’d been practising the doubles, and they started to go in at the right time.” Last year’s winner of the rival Embassy championship, Ray Barneveld, was brave enough to take Taylor on in a challenge match later in the year, but was beaten comprehensively, indeed almost humiliated.If a similar invitation arrives for this year’s Embassy winner, he will be well advised to throw it straight into the bin.. David Mathews, the Canterbury striker, is the surprise omission from the England senior squad announced yesterday. David Mathews, the Canterbury striker, is the surprise omission from the England senior squad announced yesterday.
In the absence of a national coach following the defection of the Australian Barry Dancer to coach his own national squad, a consortium of coaches has made the first selections since the Olympic campaign. The 23-year-old Mathews had only a brief opportunity to stake a claim to a place in the Sydney squad, due to injury.Guildford’s goalkeeper Nick Taylor, whom many felt should have been the No 2 in Sydney rather than the now-retired David Luckes, gets his chance along with Martin Jones, Richard Mantell and Jon Peckett from the Under-21 squad Teddington’s Danny Hayden completes the five newcomers.
