Taylor powers to another title

Phil Taylor won a fourth successive Premier League title on Sunday night with a 16-8 victory over James Wade in Cardiff in the Whyte & Mackay tournament final.

Wade had earlier denied the Cardiff crowd a Taylor v Raymond van Barneveld final when he beat the Dutchman 11-8 in their best-of-21 semi-final.

In the other semi-final Taylor romped to victory over Adrian Lewis with an 11-1 win.

With the final poised at 3-2 with Taylor ahead, the reigning champion took six legs in a row to take control.

And though Wade demonstrated his undoubted talent regularly throughout the final, Taylor was in imperious form and it seemed a matter of when, rather than if, he was going to win.

"All of the people who wrote me off did this," said Taylor after collecting the trophy and £100,000 prize money.

"I'm absolutely over the moon. This is a massive tournament."

Van Barneveld lost out at the semi-final stage for a third year on the trot as Wade came from 6-3 down.

Meanwhile, Taylor enjoyed a Premier League record average of 112.68 as he overcame Lewis in his last-four encounter.

Lewis won £40,000 - his biggest purse - but said: "The money doesn't mean anything, the title was more important to me. But with Phil in that form, there's not a lot more any player could have done."