Phil Taylor goes from strength to strength as 'The Power' cleaned up in the major ranking events in 2009.
Paul Higham looks back at how Taylor went from strength to strength in 2009 as he claimed most major prizes
Another year in darts and another 12 months of total domination from Phil Taylor - with the greatest ever taking all the major ranking events and only missing out on the Premier League.
'The Power' may be getting on in years but if anything he has improved in the last 12 months and after making it 14 world titles in January, he has gone from strength to strength and cleaned up nearly all before him.
Taylor claimed the Players' Championship final, and then followed up by taking the UK Open, Las Vegas Desert Classic and World Matchplay in Blackpool in just over a month.
The World Grand Prix in Dublin proved no problem for the Stoke man, and neither did the European Darts Championship or Grand Slam of Darts in Wolverhampton.
Taylor starred for England in the first ever Jocky Wilson Cup with a commanding win over Scotland, but he did come unstuck in the Premier League as his stranglehold on that event came to an end.
Mervyn King did the damage with a superb semi-final victory at Wembley, but he could not follow it up in the final as James Wade got his hands on the trophy for the first time.
Player of the Year - Phil Taylor
A no-brainer if ever there was one, as the best player ever to pick up a dart had one of his best ever years on the oche with a hefty haul of trophies and an almost unblemished record.
Performing at such a high level for so long is an achievement in itself, but to still have the desire to improve despite being at the very top of your game is the very definition of what makes a champion.
Taylor continues to modify his game despite destroying all before him, including trimming his darts with scissors at each event to get just the right flight on them when pounding the treble 20 as he does so well.
With just defeats to King in the Premier League and Colin Osborne in the Championship League, Taylor has come as close to a perfect season as is humanly possible - although there are some in the darts world that say he is simply not human!
Match of the Year - Taylor v King
Taylor's reign as Premier League king came to an end at the hands of a King - Mervyn King - who produced a surprise 10-6 victory in the semi-finals at Wembley.
'The Power' was red-hot favourite to lift another trophy after winning all four editions of the Premier League to date, but King was bang up for the match in his debut season in the event.
King showed he meant business straight away as he won the throw but passed it over to Taylor, a move the 14-time world champ often makes himself, and that obviously got under his skin as the Stoke man started poorly.
It was nip-and-tuck from there on but King showed not only his skill but his bottle as he took out 115, 111 and 108 to eventually come out on top after a classic - although he fell just short in the final when losing out to James Wade.
Breakthrough of the Year
Anastasia Dobromyslova achieved a notable landmark for women in darts when she beat Vincent van der Voort and impressed all round at the Grand Slam of Darts.
The Russian, a former women's world champion, became just the second female to beat one of her male counterparts in a televised PDC event with a superb victory over the Dutchman.
Dobromyslova hit two 180s and took out finishes of 100 and 121 in a thrilling 5-4 success that showed with some more experience she could mix it with the men on a regular basis.
Year to Forget
Wayne Mardle is the colourful entertainer in darts, but 2009 has been a disaster from start to finish and now 'Hawaii 501' will be desperate to start afresh in 2010.
After qualifying for the Premier League again, Mardle was forced to withdraw from the even after being taken to hospital with mumps, and he never truly recovered after that.
On-off illness and a severe loss of form and confidence has seen him slip down the PDC Order of Merit from eighth to 17th provisionally after failing to get beyond the third round in all the major events.
Mardle missed the World Matchplay and Grand Prix while suffering a first round exit in Las Vegas and third-round defeat at the UK Open - and when hoping for a bright finish to the year he was stunned 3-0 by German qualifier Jyhan Artut in the opening round of the World Championship.
One to Watch
Former Lakeside world champion
Mark Webster has not set the world alight since joining the PDC in February, but he has all the ingredients to be a success in the game.
The Welsh left-hander was superb when winning the BDO World Championship in 2008, but the PDC is a different story and he has struggled to adapt to the higher standard.
Starting from scratch, Webster has worked his way up into 65th position in the Order of Merit and a good run at the World Championship would set him up nicely to push on in 2010.
