A former PDC player believes he was "hated" by 16-time world champion Phil Taylor, who once called him "very silly" after an incident at the World Matchplay in 2011.
Paul Nicholson beat "The Power" on numerous occasions in the early 2010's. After picking up a win over Taylor at the 2010 Totesport Player's Championship, he knocked Taylor out of the UK Open the following year.
A month later, at the World Matchplay in July 2011, Taylor then reacted angrily to comments made about him by Nicholson.
After beating Colin Osborne at the tournament, "The Asset" was quoted as saying: "Me and Taylor will meet at some point and he had better bring his 'A' game, because if he doesn't I will put him to bed."
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Taylor responded to the comments in an interview with BBC Radio Stoke following his first-round victory over Mark Hylton. "I think he's very, very silly," he said. "I don't dislike him as a person, I think he's alright, but he's trying to make a name by using his mouth."
More than a decade later and Nicholson spoke about his intense rivalry with Taylor, as well as his victory at the UK Open – when he waved Taylor off after the game – during an appearance on the Darts Show Podcast.
“In that moment, I had double eight with three darts [to win], I knew I was hitting it. I did think ‘what am I going to do to make this a moment?’ because that’s what sportspeople do,” said Nicholson.
“The Ronaldos, the Tiger Woods, they have ‘moments’. That was my moment. I thought ‘I’m going to win this and people are going to remember it’. I’m going to take the lie away from it now.
"I told Dave Clark [from Sky Sports] a lie at the time [when asked about the wave in an interview], but I did wave him off. I thought ‘I’m going to make this about me, this is not about you, this is about me’.
“I waved at him, then I high-fived someone in the crowd, then I walked over and shook his hand. And he hated me. I thought ‘you can hate me all you want, but I’m the one going through to the quarters.”
He added: “For a small period of 2011 there was some genuine animosity between us. It wasn’t on my part because I was the one who was beating him. I’d beaten him in two televised events by the odd leg. He didn’t like the fact I’d beaten him. They were very costly defeats for him because, at the time, he was at his height, borderline unbeatable.”
Nicholson also recalled the mind games Taylor used to play ahead of games.
“At the time, was I influenced by hate towards him? No. Did I want to take him out? Absolutely. I saw too many players who just felt scared around him. I’m like ‘what you scared of? I’m going to give it a go,” he said.
“He tried every trick in the book to beat me. Not on the oche because, on the oche, he was always as straight as an arrow. But beforehand he would try and make eye contact with you, he would jab you in the ribs and try and tell you a little story beforehand to try and get in here [his head]. All the stuff Eric Bristow taught him. I admired the fact he was trying to get to me mentally, but he couldn’t crack me, mentally. That stuck with him a little bit.”
As well as discussing their rivalry, Nicholson also spoke of his respect for Taylor, who was also complimentary of his old rival. “I got to the stage where I wanted to strangle him," Taylor said years later. "He was pushing the right buttons at times. But he’s all right, Paul, once you get to know him.”
Topics: Darts
Jack Kenmare