Phil Taylor

[Scottish Dave]

I was seeking to make the counter point to yours

Taylor's achievements are better than winning a gold medal?

How so lol? To win a gold medal you only need to beat the best competitors from every nation on the earth. As far as I am aware less than 10 countries worldwide play darts

i personally think it is, considering Darts players now-a-days are far better than they were years ago, to win that many titles against a much better group of players consistantly is harder than winning a gold medal. if it wasn't for his talents, there would be so many world class darts players getting world coverage, another testiment to the player he is.

Just LOL very hard, we are going to have to agree to completely disagree

Getting world coverage? where? how? Which darts players get world coverage exactly? 

At the moment, its only Taylor, however if he wasn't there, Barnie, Wade, Anderson etc would all be very well known sporting millionaires by now.

they would be millionaires because of sky, but like taylor none would be very well known at all, outside those who like darts and/or have sky sports

agree to disagree as you said, but he still deserves it, probably more than any mentioned on that list

[Josedinho]

Not knowing Flintoff or Wilkinson. LOL Agree with Bolt [ ] True.
You'd have to not watch the news or pick up a newspaper for the last 10 years.
Ashes and Rugby World Cup's make the news. Taylor winning a darts competition doesn't.
To win a Gold Medal is pretty tough. You train for 4 years to peak at the right time and be the best in the world.
If Taylor loses a World Championship (like he has) he comes back next year and has another go.

[Scottish Dave]

Not knowing Flintoff or Wilkinson. LOL Agree with Bolt [ ] True.
You'd have to not watch the news or pick up a newspaper for the last 10 years.
Ashes and Rugby World Cup's make the news. Taylor winning a darts competition doesn't.
To win a Gold Medal is pretty tough. You train for 4 years to peak at the right time and be the best in the world.
If Taylor loses a World Championship (like he has) he comes back next year and has another go.

I couldn't recognise them at all mate, if i see something in the paper that doesn't interest me, ill skip past it without taking a second glance at it. doesn't matter how much their sport if cover in any medium, ill still keep skipping passed it.

Both these players play for an english team at a shitey sport, therefore why the hell would i take an interest in either of them?

[GreekStein]

Not knowing Flintoff or Wilkinson. LOL Agree with Bolt [ ] True.
You'd have to not watch the news or pick up a newspaper for the last 10 years.
Ashes and Rugby World Cup's make the news. Taylor winning a darts competition doesn't.
To win a Gold Medal is pretty tough. You train for 4 years to peak at the right time and be the best in the world.
If Taylor loses a World Championship (like he has) he comes back next year and has another go.

I couldn't recognise them at all mate, if i see something in the paper that doesn't interest me, ill skip past it without taking a second glance at it. doesn't matter how much their sport if cover in any medium, ill still keep skipping passed it.

Both these players play for an english team at a shitey sport, therefore why the hell would i take an interest in either of them?

From a man who loves UFC I expected better of you than to think Darts>Rugby or Cricket.

[outragous76]

Not knowing Flintoff or Wilkinson. LOL Agree with Bolt [ ] True.
You'd have to not watch the news or pick up a newspaper for the last 10 years.
Ashes and Rugby World Cup's make the news. Taylor winning a darts competition doesn't.
To win a Gold Medal is pretty tough. You train for 4 years to peak at the right time and be the best in the world.
If Taylor loses a World Championship (like he has) he comes back next year and has another go.

using that arguement only proves that you neednt be the best to win a gold medal - if your competition who has been the best for the previous 3.5 years is injured or not peaked!

I think you would be surprised how many people WHO WATCH SPORT - and therefore vote would recognise and understand his achievements.

There has also been a huge oversight here too. The only reason calzaghe won, is because he complained the year before about being .............................. champion for 13 years and not getting recognition for it!

As for minority sports not winning - i am on the floor laughing.............. Zara Phillips! .......... chris hoy - 2 out of the last 3 years .............. and they won because of achievement in their chosen sports, which are very much minority - less so than darts in terms of TV audience and prize money. Ok Phillips
was assisted by a poor year in sport generally, but still, for sporting achievement nowhere near Taylor.

It is a disgrace that he isnt championed as a national hero. Just because he is shaped like a capital 'D'. Ironically he is dead against alcohol in darts and frequently speaks out about it - i guess he likes his food!

[steeveg]

Theres never been anyone who has dominated darts for so long like Phil Taylor before and if he cant win spoty no darts player ever will, darts is nowhere popular as it was years ago when bbc showed Taylors mentor Bristow playing Lowe, local league would have up to 18 leagues in the winter now its lucky to have 5 leagues with teams hardly having enough players to finish the season, didn't they used to say something like darts is the 2nd most played sport in this country after football, very much doubt that nowadays, yeah Taylors a credit to his sport and if darts was popular with the TV viewers he would win it at least one year but this just proves nobody is interested so why vote.

[Colchester Kev]

Taylor should employ Max Clifford if he craves wider public recognition.

[celtic]

Taylor should employ Max Clifford   Scottish Dave if he craves wider public recognition.

FYP

[Colchester Kev]

If Taylor got his top off and oiled himself up a bit, Dave might add him to his sig pic

[kinboshi]

Carl Fogarty was never in with a shout of winning SPOTY, and he completely dominated his field for years.  Hundreds of thousands used to go to watch him compete live, and yet he didn't get a look in.

Oh, and to say that you know who Paula Radcliffe is just because of her 'toilet break' is laughable.  She's probably the best British athlete of all time - and currently holds the world record (or world best) for every road race distance from 10K and above. 

[AndrewT]

If there was someone who deserves it even more than Taylor it's Tony McCoy - he competes on terrestrial TV every Saturday throughout the entire winter, completely dominating his sport, yet purely and simply becuase he's never won a Grand National he hasn't won SPOTY (though he did get a 3rd once).

[TightEnd]

Bob Nutt of Angling. Dominated his sport for 25 years, and its a massive participation sport in the UK

Never came close to SPOTY.

Got to be a major sport, or an immense Olympic achievement, or a minor royal, or a GP driver (huge petrolhead fan base) to win it. Even the incidence of boxing winners is far less than it used to be, exactly correlated with boxing's fall from public consciousness

Darts, Angling, Motorcycling.....none qualify

[AndrewT]

Bob Nutt of Angling. Dominated his sport for 25 years, and its a massive participation sport in the UK

Never came close to SPOTY.

He actually 'won' SPOTY back in the early 90s, in terms of the fact he received the most votes from the public. However, the BBC disqualified him because they said his votes were mostly from a campaign organised by the Angling Times.

[kinboshi]

Justin Fashanu would have also won it as well.

[GreekStein]

Eric 'The Eel' Moussambani should have won it but the corrupt bastards at BBC didn't include him because he's not only fucking shite at his sport but he's also not British.

What sort of BS is that?