Dennis Priestley was close friends with Phil Taylor back in the day (Image: GETTY)
A former darts player, who became the first world champion in 1994 and was one of ‘s best friends, has admitted that he regrets letting The Power get so close to him.Dennis Priestley broke new ground when he won the first World Darts Championship after the acrimonious split in darts. It saw him become the first player to win both iterations of the tournament, having achieved glory in the BDO version three years earlier.He was good friends with Taylor in spite of their growing rivalry during the 1990s, even sharing prize money with each other at times. Priestley, however, regrets their close relationship because he feels he taught Taylor a few too many tricks.
The two players shared prize money at the height of their friendship in the 1990s (Image: GETTY)
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“Looking back on the situation, I shouldn’t have let him get that close to me in terms of friendly wise,” he told SafeBettingSites last year.”I was 10 years senior to him and I was not a teenager in my 20s. I believe he learnt a lot from me but I should have not let him get too close to me. I should have kept him at arm’s length with more distance.”Taylor later emerged as the greatest player in the history of the game, winning the World Darts Championship on no less than 16 occasions.It has been suggested that Luke Littler could one day surpass that number if he keeps developing on the same trajectory, but Priestley is adamant that Taylor’s record will remain untouched forever.
“Phil and his record will never be overtaken,” he said. “It is possible, but in my opinion, no one will get near the 16 world championships and all his other titles.
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“If you are a top player and dominate for a decade, you have done extremely well. Phil more or less dominated for two decades which was remarkable.”Reflecting on his rivalry with Taylor in another interview with the , Priestley said: “We were without doubt the two outstanding players during the 90s, banging heads together for 10 years consistently in finals, not semis.””It was a great rivalry, I mean, obviously I’m exactly ten years older than Phil and it started to take its toll later on. I don’t think I lost my ability really as much as I lost the mental side of it after the late 90s, to be quite honest.”I wasn’t concentrating as hard. Unfortunately, my game was a little bit slower than the others and the concentration had to be at its peak and when that started to wane. That’s when I started to not be as successful.”