The 16-time darts world champion is relishing a return to the tournament at Alexandra Palace and the contest beating the viewing figures for cricket's showpiece event.

 

Phil Taylor has won 16 world titles but still feels nervous in the first round of the PDC World Championship. Photograph: PA Wire Photograph: Pa Wire/PA

December is here and, naturally enough, so is darts. With the PDC World Championship looming, the draw for the first round has now been made, staged with a typically bravura sense of fizz live on Sky Sports in the company of the charismatic Dutch world No2 Michael van Gerwen.

 

Such is the stratification in talent at the very pinnacle of the game – Phil Taylor is odds-on to win his 17th world title; the fourth favourite, James Wade, is a 22-1 shot – that the draw itself is in truth something of a formality, a signal that darts' festive year-end showpiece, the jewel in the darting crown, is decisively in train.

 

Speaking at the launch of the championships at a small but very chic private dining room in Mayfair, Taylor himself was unable to shed a great deal of light on either of his potential first-round opponents; no doubt due study will now be made of Ian Moss ("I do know Ian but I don't know his game") and Rob Szabo ("I probably know him but I can't place him"). For all his status as a darting colossus, with £6m in prize money already banked, Taylor is still hugely excited by the prospect of trying to extend his utter domination of the game's breakaway tournament.

 

"The first round is the most nervous," he said. "It's a great format. If you go one set down when best of three, trust me you are shitting yourself but the pressure's on them as well. So hopefully if you do lose the first set they're thinking: 'I'm going to knock Phil Taylor out here.'"

 

Taylor, of course, thrives on such anxieties. In a sport that is entirely a matter of iron competitive will, his thoughts have already turned to the prospect of another meeting with Van Gerwen, who beat him on Sunday night in the final of the Players Championships. "I've just been planting little seeds in Michael's head [over lunch]," he said.

 

"Three games in a row, that was hard work for me last night. With the world championships coming he's saying: 'Me and you are going to play again.' And I said: 'Yes, but I can have a day off before this time?' I'll get New Year's Day off if I get to the final."

 

When the two met in last year's PDC world final at Alexandra Palace, Taylor attacked aggressively from the start, overwhelming the Dutchman in a boisterous, thrillingly unbound occasion. It has since been hailed as one of the great darts championship performances, although Taylor says he can hardly remember anything of the match and still has not watched it again ("every time I watch myself on TV I have to go on a diet"). "It's a sign you were playing well when you can't remember it," he added. "The games you lose are the games you can remember."

 

Taylor turned 53 this year and remains rather playfully adamant that he will retire four years from now. Not that the PDC will be ready to let a champion who has in effect carried it, Atlas-like, through the dawn of its satellite-era world championship slip away easily. The sport is enjoying one of it periodic booms. Prize money at Alexandra Palace is all set to top the £1m mark, with the champion taking home £250,000. The staging of the championship – cast as a boozy stag do-ish night out – is an enduring success.

 

Best of all, TV ratings are healthy. The Ashes in Australia may be the headline sporting event but darts will still expect to beat its viewing figures over the course of its 20 sessions from 13 December to New Year's Day.

 

 

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