World Champion Taylor Enjoys The Limelight

`We went out for a stroll along `the boulevard` and they recognised me and wanted autographs,` said Taylor.

Darts world champion Phil 'The Power' Taylor is 48 and overweight but on the streets of Los Angeles he is feted as a bigger star than singer and fellow Briton Robbie Williams.

The former sheet-metal welder and father of four, who has won 14 world championship titles in 18 years, found this out when he was staying with his friend Williams in California.

"We went out for a stroll along 'the boulevard' and they recognised me and wanted autographs," said Taylor. "There were crowds of people, all Americans. But they did not recognise Robbie and it made him laugh.

"He said: 'I love it!' because that is how he wanted it to be. But for me, it is getting like that everywhere I go now -- in Malaysia, in China, in Europe. Even the London taxi drivers ask me for autographs. It's all over!"

Taylor and Williams, who has forged a hugely successful career as a solo artist since leaving boy band Take That, were both born in the central English industrial city of Stoke-on-Trent and, apart from geographical roots, share a love of lower league soccer club Port Vale and an easy-going sense of humour.

Taylor's fame has grown and spread with the rising global popularity of darts in the last decade -- a growth he believes boosts his sport's case for one day being accepted as a competitive event at the Olympic Games.

"Yes, why not?" he said, when asked about darts at the Olympics over lunch in London. "I can see it happening. They would have to cut out the alcohol for everyone but I would do that anyway.

"If I was Barry Hearn (one of the sport's top promoters) I would ban it anyway for all the professionals. Out now -- gone. I don't think we need it and it just holds the sport back.

"We certainly don't need it while we are competing or performing and it is only really the British guys who drink anyway. The rest, like the Dutch, have all stopped and take it seriously."

PRIZE MONEY

Taylor's vision of his sport's future is at odds with the hackneyed image of its past when plump, darts-playing men in smoky taverns spilled mugs of beer as they threw amid raucous and often vulgar supporters.

He believes the break with the past is needed as Asian nations strive to join in at the top level and the best European professionals prepare assiduously to maintain their form.

"Darts is growing everywhere, including the United States," he said. "It may not get truly massive there but it is climbing a lot. It is much bigger in Germany, too, as well as Holland, of course, Russia, China and Canada.

"The future is looking good," said Taylor. "The prize money is growing all the time and it will be up to 10 million pounds ($14.23 million) annually in a few years' time. But it is taking time to shake the old image off.

"It is wrong because everyone is so much more professional than most people realise. Look at me -- I'm 48 but I'm like a footballer in the way I practise in the mornings and then go to the gym in the afternoons.

"I used to do the weights and treadmills and so on but now I just work out by swimming mostly. I do half a mile a day. Every day. Fitness is very important now for me to prolong my career at the top."

Taylor, who beat Scot Robert Thornton 16-9 in the inaugural Players Championship final in London on Sunday, said the victory would help to lift his earnings for the opening two months of 2009 past half a million pounds.

"That's why I practise and work hard. It's the only way I know. I just wish I had worked at it earlier. My only disappointment is that when I go on the stage to play I don't look like a million dollars.

WEIGHT STRUGGLE

"I'd want to look like David Beckham really -- I have always struggled with my weight and it would have been great for me health-wise and image-wise if I had looked after myself when I was younger.

"But when I started out you could not get healthy food so I ended up eating fish-and-chips or Chinese takeaways at 11 or midnight. Now I prepare properly and I eat well."

Taylor's longevity at the top of darts has seen him written off as a spent force several times. "But I always bounce back -- I'm like Rocky and I've had more comebacks than Sylvester Stallone," he joked. Fan mail from all over the world proves his popularity.

Taylor has won more prizes than any other player, with 75 major tournament wins besides his 14 world titles.

He believes the next great champion is likely to come from China or Malaysia.

"I have seen players in Malaysia who are as good as any top-level player I have seen," he said. "And the Chinese are a big force. When I first went there, they couldn't hit the board, but now they are winning tournaments.

"They are so disciplined. They only need a good sponsor to look after their travel expenses and they will come through and then I think when they succeed darts will really be massive."