World Matchplay semi-finals: former Winter Garden foes Taylor and Wade tussle

What a year is has been for comeback king Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor, who is now one step away from his third consecutive televised final and adding an incredible 16th World Matchplay title to his bulging trophy cabinet, which includes recent captures of the World Cup of Darts and Japan Masters.

The Stoke-born darting superstar is understandably odds-on favourite at 1/4 with Coral to win his semi-final duel with James Wade, considering his unparalleled calibre in this competition, where he will be searching for his 39th consecutive match victory on the Blackpool oche.

Taylor is now a 13/8 chance to retain his crown in his favourite competition, and The Machine will have to have something special up his sleeve to usurp The Power, who has lost just six matches in the Winter Gardens since the tournament began in 1994. Quite the stat.

No stranger to a nine darter, the exceptional Englishman hit his first televised (and the first ever to be broadcast on UK TV) perfect leg here back in 2002, and is superbly priced at 16/1 to achieve another in Lancashire.

To get to this stage, second seed Taylor made light work of both John Henderson and Andy Hamilton, barely blinking as he took his opponents down by large 10-2 and 13-6 margins respectively. The Power thus deftly side-stepped the giant killings that befell big-name peers such as Gary Anderson, Raymond van Barneveld and Adrian Lewis.

Yet, fan favourite Taylor still looked to be in second gear, only bringing his best finishing out of the bag for slain quarter-finalist Dave Chisnall last time out, when fans finally got a glimpse of Taylor’s true prowess.