If he were to retire now ....

[WizardofozFan]

If Snakebite were to retire now, where would he stand in the darting elite in terms of the PDC since its inception?

Taylor & MVG top 2 no question, would you have Peter 3rd or Barney, Anderson, Wade or Lewis?

Surely they would be the top 7 as it stands?

[Black Velvet]

Would you rather suck his wee mickey, or have Jo sit on your face?

[Rout]

If Snakebite were to retire now, where would he stand in the darting elite in terms of the PDC since its inception?

Taylor & MVG top 2 no question, would you have Peter 3rd or Barney, Anderson, Wade or Lewis?

Surely they would be the top 7 as it stands?

Taylor
MVG
Part
Anderson
Barney
Wright
Lewis
Wade

[BeppeBergomi]

If Snakebite were to retire now, where would he stand in the darting elite in terms of the PDC since its inception?

Taylor & MVG top 2 no question, would you have Peter 3rd or Barney, Anderson, Wade or Lewis?

Surely they would be the top 7 as it stands?

1. Taylor
2. MvG
3. Anderson
4. Wright
5. Barney
6. Wade
7. Lewis

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[Dannyboy]

Amazing how JP gets forgotten about - it’s the wall all over again!

For what it’s worth, his only Ally Pally victory was a poor tournament overall littered with players not used to the huge stage.

[BeppeBergomi]

Amazing how JP gets forgotten about - it’s the wall all over again!

For what it’s worth, his only Ally Pally victory was a poor tournament overall littered with players not used to the huge stage.

I admit that I didn't see much of Part as a player however I acknowledge his status in darts and fix my rankings as follows

1. Taylor
2. MvG
3. Anderson
4. Wright
5. Barney
6. Wade
7. Part
8. Lewis

PS. JP as far as I'm concerned he's no 1 in one thing for sure... Punditry as he's the best Sky have in my opinion at the moment....

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[oche balboa]

Amazing how JP gets forgotten about - it’s the wall all over again!

For what it’s worth, his only Ally Pally victory was a poor tournament overall littered with players not used to the huge stage.

But also stopped the run of dominance of Taylor in 2003

[Dannyboy]

Amazing how JP gets forgotten about - it’s the wall all over again!

For what it’s worth, his only Ally Pally victory was a poor tournament overall littered with players not used to the huge stage.

But also stopped the run of dominance of Taylor in 2003

Very true, but darts before 2007 was a lot different from now.

[meetthefeebles]

Amazing how JP gets forgotten about - it’s the wall all over again!

For what it’s worth, his only Ally Pally victory was a poor tournament overall littered with players not used to the huge stage.

The whole thing about that 2008 event is a bit of a myth, said so often that it is now repeated almost as unchallenged fact.

Part beat Wade, Mensur and Painter en route to the final. Painter himself beat Mason, Barney and Lewis. Even Shepherd, who lived a charmed life, beat Mardle and Manley. The idea that it was a tourney full of useless jobbers who didn't play on TV just doesn't hold water.

It is misremembered largely based on two things. Taylor was rubbish throughout. He looked beatable almost in every game he played. And Shepherd got to the final, and he wasn't, and isn't, much good. That's about it

[meetthefeebles]

Amazing how JP gets forgotten about - it’s the wall all over again!

For what it’s worth, his only Ally Pally victory was a poor tournament overall littered with players not used to the huge stage.

But also stopped the run of dominance of Taylor in 2003

Very true, but darts before 2007 was a lot different from now.

It certainly was. Darts in 2003 was utterly dominated by one player. That player seemed invincible, especially at the Circus. As much as I hate him, there was no denying that he was the best player in the world. His destruction of Part in 2001 was brutal. He's the greatest player of all time.

And Part beat him. It wasn't a fluke. He could have broken after that 2001 final. He didn't. He spent eighteen months improving consistently. He gave Taylor a real fright at Blackpool. And in the final, Taylor averaged 100. He played well. He'd have blitzed anyone else in the field playing like that. And when he got ahead at 6-5, everyone expected Part to fold. Yet he won. He was 7-1 to win that match before it started.

That win is one of the greatest wins in the history of darts. The disrespect John Part gets from darts fans is undeserved. How many of these other great players beat a prime Taylor in a world final? It is too easy to look at the numbers and make assumptions. Wright is a great player and has had a great run over the last few years. How many tournies did he win against a prime MvG, let alone a prime Taylor?

That was the effect Taylor had. He monopolised the majors (there were far fewer then, too). Great players who would have won far more in a field like today, where five or six players are sharing titles between them, won far less, or even none, with Taylor in the field. I've no doubt at all that Part 2001 - 2004 would have collected several additional majors if he didn't have Taylor to contend with.

[markymark]

Darts in 2003 was utterly dominated by one player. That player seemed invincible, especially at the Circus. As much as I hate him, there was no denying that he was the best player in the world. His destruction of Part in 2001 was brutal. He's the greatest player of all time.

And Part beat him. It wasn't a fluke. He could have broken after that 2001 final. He didn't. He spent eighteen months improving consistently. He gave Taylor a real fright at Blackpool. And in the final, Taylor averaged 100. He played well. He'd have blitzed anyone else in the field playing like that. And when he got ahead at 6-5, everyone expected Part to fold. Yet he won. He was 7-1 to win that match before it started.

That win is one of the greatest wins in the history of darts. The disrespect John Part gets from darts fans is undeserved. How many of these other great players beat a prime Taylor in a world final? It is too easy to look at the numbers and make assumptions. Wright is a great player and has had a great run over the last few years. How many tournies did he win against a prime MvG, let alone a prime Taylor?

Because of the 2007 Final, and how important that is in Sky's story of the darts, that 2003 final is wrongly disregarded.

[Dannyboy]

The 2007 final was a turning point for darts in the U.K. It then (almost) became mainstream. To a lesser extent to what the 1985 snooker final did to that sport.

[meetthefeebles]

The 2007 final was a turning point for darts in the U.K. It then (almost) became mainstream. To a lesser extent to what the 1985 snooker final did to that sport.

You must have missed darts in the 1980s, mate.

[Dannyboy]

The 2007 final was a turning point for darts in the U.K. It then (almost) became mainstream. To a lesser extent to what the 1985 snooker final did to that sport.

You must have missed darts in the 1980s, mate.

Is that why broadcasters switched it off then?

[Ginge]

The main reason they switched it off is because the sport was being run by an idiot who didnt want to move with the times. Nothing to do with its popularity.

[Black Velvet]

In the 1980s?

[meetthefeebles]

The 2007 final was a turning point for darts in the U.K. It then (almost) became mainstream. To a lesser extent to what the 1985 snooker final did to that sport.

You must have missed darts in the 1980s, mate.

Is that why broadcasters switched it off then?

So darts was not 'in the mainstream' during the 1980s?

[meetthefeebles]

The main reason they switched it off is because the sport was being run by an idiot who didnt want to move with the times. Nothing to do with its popularity.

It was Griff Rhys Jones' fault!

[Ginge]

In the 1980s?

Yes, the BBC cut back their darts offering from 1988 and ITV stopped totally the same year (only started again with the Barney/Taylor game in 1999)

[meetthefeebles]

I've genuinely never seen anyone claim that 2007 resulted in darts 'becoming almost mainstream' in the UK before. I get that it was an important point of the evolution of darts on Sky, and in the PDC, but I've never seen that claimed.