Taylor can extend winning run

A resurgent Phil Taylor should be backed to exact his revenge on James Wade when the pair meet for the second time this season  in the Whyte & Mackay Premier League at the Brighton Centre on Thursday.

Taylor had his 44-game, three-year unbeaten run in the Premier League broken in an 8-6 loss to Wade in the opening week of this year’s tournament in January but was in poor form at the time and returns this week back at his brilliant best.

The 13-times world champion is a best-priced 3-4 with totesport to win the best-of-14-legs match, and 6-5 on the handicap with Boylesports conceding his rival a 2.5-leg start.

After going down to Wade, Taylor went on to lose two more of his opening four games but, following a second change of darts, he has looked the imperious player of old, whitewashing Wayne Mardle 8-0 before securing 8-3 defeats of Raymond van Barneveld and John Part.

Taylor kept up his good work when winning the Blue Square UK Open North-West Regional Final in Wigan on Sunday and will step up to the oche at the peak of his powers.

Wade, available at a general 9-4, landed his fourth win from his opening seven matches when beating Peter Manley 8-5 in Sheffield last week but has only sporadically played to his full potential in the league this year.

Pick of the other matches is the top-versus-bottom encounter between van Barneveld and Mardle. Terry Jenkins plays Adrian Lewis, while Part takes on Manley.