Darts

 From time to time, a sport will throw up a player who is far ahead of his contemporaries. Jahingir Khan won 555 consecutive games of squash between 1981 and 1986, and Edwin Moses won 122 consecutive 400 metre hurdle races between 1977 and 1987. Phil "The Power" Taylor is one such competitor.

Prior to 1988 Taylor played darts part time in the Stoke-on-Trent area of England, while working full time making ceramic toilet roll handles. Five times world Darts champion Eric Bristow saw Phil play and decided that there was enough raw talent to turn for Taylor to turn pro, so he loaned him £10,000, with the proviso that he practice full time and start to enter tournaments.

Two years later, in 1990, Taylor qualified to play in the World Championships for the first time. As an unknnown 125/1 shot, Phil powered his way to the final where he came up against his mentor, Eric Bristow. In the best of 11 set match, Phil "The Power" Taylor dominated and defeated Bristow 6 sets to 1 to win his first title.

In 1991 he lost at the quarter final stage, but returned in 1992 to win his second world title. In 1993 he fell at the second round, in what would be his last BDO (British Darts Organization) world championship. Distraught at the lack of television coverage, low sponsorship, and therefore monetary compensation, sixteen of the top players decided to break away from the BDO and form their own league - The World Darts...