TAYLOR BACKED TO DOMINATE LITTLER WITH MIND GAMES

By Aaron Nijjar

PHIL TAYLOR would have defeated Luke Littler with “childish pranks” at the oche. 

Two-time world champ Adrian Lewis reckons ‘The Power’ would still be the best player on the planet if he was competing in the modern era. 

Luke Littler has elevated darts to a whole new level and is the current world No.1 after winning TWELVE major titles at just 19. 

But Lewis reckons Taylor would still come out on top against Littler, pointing to a Grand Slam semi-final where he averaged 117 but was still losing. 

He told the Double Tops podcast: “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. 

“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 is the most decorated player in the history of the sport, having lifted a staggering 16 world titles across THREE different decades. 

Lewis admits Taylor is the “master of the mind games” and recalled some of the antics he used to pull, sharing stories ranging from missing darts cases to flicking nuts in business class. 

He added: “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.”

Image by Taylor Lanning.