Phil Taylor's phantom Double 12 v Dean Winstanley @ Gibraltar last week.

D&B - what were the circumstances...did Russ assume it was in, for Taylor to just continue?

What were the scores at the time and who alerted Winstanley?

I saw an interview (after the final) and I remember Taylor mentioning he offered to RE-PLAY the match against Winstanley, though he graciously declined.

As much as I don't like him, I can't see an intentional horseplay or dishonesty going on there from Phil Taylor...probably just a mistake from him as well as Russ Bray.

What a cheat, it's obvious it isn't in, Taylor clocks it isn't but pulls out the dart regardless.

Classless loser.

As a massive darts fan, I am so upset about this. How a man with such talent can stoop to such depths.

And Navel. The offer to replay the match was meaningless as the PDC said after that they cannot replay matches once an official results been called. Phil knew this only too well when he made the offer. Russ Bray should feel a little embarrassed as well. A caller with as much experience, or in fact, anyone with a pair of eyes, should not be missing that.

And Navel. You seriously think it was an honest mistake. He throws, looks at it as he's walking up to the board, and then stands with his hand on it for a moment waiting for Russ to notice. When Russ calls game, he whips the darts out quickly and scampers back to the oche, the lowlife.

The plot thickens!

As reported on other forums, there was a marker on the left side of the board. As to why he/she didn't say anything could be for a number of reasons. The main one being their job once game shot is called is to tear the score sheet away as quickly as possible and get ready for the next leg without any interuptions.

From the camera angle you can see Winstanley looking perplexed. Then again his confidence has been low of late so that can be factored in.

I still want the phantom D12 question to be asked live on air. C'mon Clarkey, earn your Sky stripes sunshine

Get that camera on his face after the 3rd dart landed - then we would know. Small event - so no camera me thinks.

I seem to be alone on this one...as dislikable as he is, I don't think Taylor is as bad as some want to believe he is.

He's 2-1 up at the time (I think) so there's no cause for alarm, it's a rag-arsed tournament against (as good as Winstanley is) an inferior opponent and there are cameras up everyone's hooters!

Is ANY darts player naive enough to think they'll get away with something like this?

From the evidence I've seen, NOTHING is conclusive enough and I also think the likes of Bristow (who could easily have stayed quiet about this) is highlighting this as Sky Sports salivates over tears, spats & grudges.

I'd be interested to know if Taylor & Bristow have fallen out over this...that'd be more telling than the evidence of some grainy tapes.
They're best of buddies and conveniently they're also Sky Sports whóres, which begs the question of whether this situation has been contrived.

Would there've been a similar commotion if it had been Winstanley allegedly cheating? Taylor's the biggest name in the game and that makes a story.

As a conspiracy theorist, I think the media are making the most of a nothing incident as nowadays it seems ANY publicity is deemed as good publicity, though sometimes such clichés confuse me as I have difficulty believing that people with no interest in a particular sport might subscribe (which is Sky's agenda) just to be 'voyeurs'

A decent piece from The Guardian:

Outrage as darts is rocked by the case of Phil 'The Power' Taylor's dodgy double-12 check-out[/b]

Following the most distressing sporting incident involving a sharpened metallic tip since the 1976 Olympic Games, the game of darts faces its darkest hour.  Whether Phil “the Power” Taylor will endure the sort of fate that ravaged Boris “Dis” Onishchenko, the Red Army officer and modern pentathlete who in Montreal **** his electric épée to record scoring blows where none were struck, time will tell.

For the moment, the outrage of the double 12 that never was has failed to incite global condemnation on a similar scale. Yet it remains the earliest of doors, and there is no knowing whether this scandal will yet ignite.

If Eric Bristow has his way, it certainly will. In a scything attack on his erstwhile protégé, the ‘Crafty Cockney’ accuses Taylor of cheating in his semi-final with Dean “Over the Top” Winstanley at the PDC Gibraltar Open last month.

The footage may be viewed below by those with the stomach to do so.

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For readers of delicate sensibilities who fear becoming bed-bound with a fit of vapours, the bare facts are as follows. Requiring 29 to win the leg, the Power hit single five to leave 24.

When his next dart plainly landed the wrong side of the wire, referee Russ Bray – the Aleem Dar of the piece – called “game shot and the leg, Phil Taylor”. The 16-time world champion duly approached the board, paused momentarily in apparent confusion, removed his darts, and strode back towards the oche.

Here, one is inevitably reminded of Stuart Broad’s failure to walk in the first Ashes Test at Trent Bridge, after umpire Mr Dar somehow missed that immensely thick edge off a ball from Ashton Agar.

The source of debate in both cases concerns where poor manners end and cheating begins, and the problem for darts is the dearth of precedent. With cricket, countless batsmen have refused to walk down the ages, and his supporters could cite the likes of Don Bradman and Dr Grace in Broad’s defence.

In arrows, where the wire-laden construction of the board ordinarily renders any need for a sophisticated video review system obsolete, no such howler seems to have been made before, and there is no etiquette to guide the path.

One sympathises with Mr Bray, the astoundingly gravel-throated referee of whom Martin Amis memorably said that, while he may not have the worst voice ever, he certainly has the worst voice yet. In a statement reaffirming its commitment to “fairness” and integrity”, the Professional Darts Corporation attributed the fiasco solely to “human error from the referee”, thus exonerating its most luminous star.

Mr Bristow, who long ago taught Taylor how to win in more conventional style, is less indulgent. “The player knows if it’s not in, and has to declare it,” he told The Sun. “You don’t want cheats.” Indeed not, and until now it was believed that there were none in darts.

Martin “Wolfie” Adams, a multiple winner of the rival BDO world title (the version, broadcast each January by the BBC, for men who try hard but happen not to be particularly good at darts) told the Guardian this soon after an infamous handball in Paris. “I look at football, and it’s horrible some of the things you see. Look at Thierry Henry for example, he cheated. I don’t understand it. You don’t get cheating in darts.”

Cheating is an ugly accusation to fling at anyone, let alone the greatest flinger of them all, so let the record state that Phil the Power denies noticing that his arrow landed outside the double 12 bed.

It could be that his eyesight is compromised, even if his subsequent victory in the final militates against the explanation, and rather than speculate on his guilt or innocence, let us remind him of what befell Boris Onishchenko.

After Leonid Brezhnev summoned him to the Kremlin for a severe rebuke, he was dismissed from the Red Army, and became a taxi driver in Kiev. If that sounds little like an overdose of merriment, he was lucky not to be relocated to Siberia.

If the Power wishes to avoid being sent to Coventry by fellow pros of the Bristovian persuasion, and fatally undermining the darting dream of one day joining the Olympic family, he must consider donating his £20,000 Gibraltar Open cheque to a charity. Possibly one that trains guide dogs for the blind.

If you watch Taylors body language in some of the clips on this incident its clear he knew the dart was not in the double. On one hand you can see how someone does something on instinct when they only have a split second to act. In Taylors case it was only a second or two between him seeing the dart was not in and picking it out. However, a person with stronger morals would make the right decision even in two seconds.

There's an audio interview with Taylor with radio Stoke.

Doesn't really stack up to me. He now claims he offered to forfeit the game which I hadn't heard mentioned before.

He also, I think (it's not quite clear), says "the referee calls game, set match and it's game, set, match" which is basically saying he didn't have to declare it wasn't in.

Another run of the mill clueless journalist who's obviously never played darts to a decent level to fully understand his own comment, let alone the game!

WHAT A ****!!!

He said
"Martin “Wolfie” Adams, a multiple winner of the rival BDO world title (the version, broadcast each January by the BBC, for men who try hard but happen not to be particularly good at darts."

BDO