Phil Taylor and Raymond Van Barneveld took the sport to a new level, as they reached the dizzy heights of darting drama, on a scale never witnessed before. It was quite simply ‘THE GREATEST GAME’.
Taylor will still be wondering just how he fell at the final hurdle and failed to secure a 14th World Championship title. Barneveld silenced the doubters, because he can now be described as a living darting legend after equalling Eric Bristow’s record of five World crowns.
This is his greatest triumph of all. It will also go down as the biggest disappointment of Taylor’s darting career.
It really was ‘Magic Darts’. The 2007 Ladbrokes.com World Championship will go down in the darting history books as the best ever. The final itself beggared belief! Records were broken every step of the way and Taylor and Barney gave us something extra special. If it is to be the last year of the tournament at The Circus Tavern, what a way to go out, because it surely won’t get better than this!
So what does it say about Taylor and Barney?
As far as Taylor is concerned, he will be fuming deep down, because he knew the biggest prize in world darts was there for the taking. He admitted afterwards that he took his foot off the accelerator and he paid the ultimate price. I cannot remember an occasion in the last 14 years that Taylor let a three set advantage slip away.
This was the one he wanted to win most of all – because it was Barneveld, because it was the ‘Dream Final’ and because he was so desperate to prove that he really is the greatest of them all. Maybe he tried too hard, because he has absolutely nothing to prove and he IS the greatest of all time. His achievements will never be matched and the sport of darts wouldn’t be where it is today without Phil Taylor.
My bet is that he will come back stronger than ever. Taylor still has the hunger and the Barney Factor will give him the fresh challenge that he so craves. In 14 years of the World Championship at the Circus Tavern, Taylor has played 72 matches. He has lost only three – all of them in the final to Dennis Priestley, John Part and now Raymond Van Barneveld.
Taylor knows he has a serious rival for the darting glories of the future. The great rivals will now be World No.1 and No.2 when the brand new PDC Order of Merit is published. Taylor is top of the pile by a mile with over £330,000 and Barney is next by a distance, having earned nearly £165,000 in just 10 incredible months, since he joined the PDC.
It will also mean the pair will be seeded in opposite halves of the draw comes the major TV tournaments. The Clash of the Darting Legends is only 10 months old and it is set to run and run.
What will concern Taylor is the manner of all three defeats against the Dutch star in big tournaments, because he has lost them all in a final leg decider and on each occasion, Barneveld has come from behind to win. In the UK Open Quarter-Finals at Bolton, Barney won 11 legs to 10……at the Las Vegas Desert Classic, Taylor was two sets up but lost 4-3 in a dramatic last leg….and then there was January 1, 2007 – darts finest hour, when Barneveld was three sets down and won that amazing sudden-death shoot-out to be crowned World Champion.
It says that Barney took the biggest gamble of his career when he took the leap of faith into the PDC and it has paid off handsomely. He knew that he would never be classed as a true great until he had taken on and beaten Taylor in his own backyard. Well, that is exactly what he has managed to achieve – and how!
There were 498 maximums in the tournament – a record…..and those records just kept tumbling. There were 31 in the ‘Greatest Match’ – a record for the final….Barney’s 21 x 180s was another record for the final and his 51 x 180s was an individual record for the World Championship, beating Taylor’s 49 from 12 months ago.
The tournament will also be remembered for the bad-tempered bust-up between Taylor and Chris Mason, the large number of close games, tie-breaks and sudden-death legs, the emergence of Unicorn’s Andy Hamilton onto the world stage, the performance of qualifiers Colin Osborne, Darren Webster and Alan Tabern in reaching the Quarter-Finals, the arrival of Unicorn’s new South African star Wynand Havenga. The Colin Lloyd/Barney 2nd Round epic, when Lloydy missed four darts to win and to the Circus Tavern….thanks for the memories.
But the 2007 World Championship will never be forgotten – thanks to new World Champion Raymond Van Barneveld and a man who will be king again – Phil Taylor.
BY STUART PYKE
Photo : Lawrence Lustig/PDC
