Phil Taylor did not even own a set of darts when the invitation landed.
“I didn’t even have a set of darts before I’d done this, but I’m enjoying it,” Taylor told SportBible.
The 66-year-old, who last stepped on a professional stage at the 2024 World Seniors Championship before formally retiring in May 2025, will reunite with fellow former world champion Adrian Lewis at the MODUS Super Series International Pairs from 23-28 November at the MODUS Super Series studio in Portsmouth.
Taylor made clear the offer had to come from the right person.
Read also: ‘If you lie to me, I will leave’: Guardiola’s City warning takes on new weight
“It’s just the offer and something to do, plus playing with Aidy as well. Anyone else, I probably wouldn’t have bothered,” he told SportBible.
‘I wasn’t really interested if it wasn’t for Phil’
Lewis, a two-time PDC world champion and, like Taylor, a Stoke-on-Trent man, had walked away from the professional circuit in April 2023 and only recently drifted back onto the exhibition scene. When the MODUS approach came, his answer was conditional on one name.
“With Phil? I said, ‘Yeah, definitely’. I wasn’t really interested in playing if it wasn’t for Phil,” Lewis told SportBible.
The pair have form as a duo. Representing England, they lifted the PDC World Cup of Darts four times in their six outings together, a partnership that dominated the pairs format for much of the 2010s.
Read also: Harry Kane’s Bayern future suddenly comes with a Tottenham escape route
The hip that ended it
Taylor’s exit had been coming for a long time. He underwent hip replacement surgery in the summer of 2024, and by the time he formally announced his retirement in May 2025, he had already been off the tour for months.
“The worst pain I ever had was in the last 12 months,” he said in that retirement interview.
“We’ll definitely be ready. It might take us a couple of legs to settle in,” Taylor told SportBible of the November booking.
Read also: ‘I’m not confident’: Red Bull chief delivers troubling verdict on Verstappen’s car
