Express & Star

Phil Taylor: My feud with Eric Bistow

Phil 'The Power' Taylor today insisted he has no plans to end his 'cheat' row with fellow darts legend Eric Bristow.

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Taylor will begin his quest for a fifth Grand Slam of Darts title when he takes on wildcard qualifier Stuart Kellett at Wolverhampton Civic Hall tonight.

And the 16-time world champion says he is not ready to bury the hatchet with Bristow after 'The Crafty Cockney' accused his former friend of cheating earlier this year.

"I don't want to sit down with him," said Taylor. "It was a load of rubbish.

"Ours is a game when you can't cheat because you've got two referees on each game.

"I wouldn't say there aren't mistakes made, but nobody can cheat and he knows better than that."

"Does Eric upset me? Never in a million years.

"I loved him and I still love him. But I don't like him.

"At the moment I'm too busy to fall out with anybody. I haven't got the time and energy for it.

"My time is precious and I don't want to spend my time falling out with people."

The allegation came after footage emerged of Taylor failing to flag up that his dart had missed while playing Dean Winstanley in the Gibraltar Darts Trophy in June.

It appeared that Taylor's game-winning dart had hit double 12 but television cameras zoomed in and showed that it had landed outside the wire, a fact that Taylor, Winstanley and referee Russ Bray apparently failed to spot.

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