Setbacks and Bouncebacks
The World Matchplay is perennially considered as Priestley's 'bogey' event, as he has never won it despite reaching the first three finals of the tournament. In the 1994 final, he held a 6-1 in legs lead over Butler when the American alerted Priestley's attention to a distraction in the arena; Butler's wily intervention had a noticeable effect on Priestley and the American won 15 of the next 21 legs to seal victory.
The following year, Priestley suffered the first of five final defeats to Taylor 11-16 in legs. The Matchplay appeared to be Priestley's for the taking in 1996 when hot-favourite Taylor was knocked out by Peter Evison, but Evison in turn edged Priestley 16-14 in a dramatic final. Priestley also reached the semi-finals of the event in 1999 but lost to eventual winner Rod Harrington. In recent years, Priestley has contested some thrilling Blackpool encounters with Taylor. His 13-15 loss to Taylor in the 2nd round of the 2005 event was followed by a 13-16 defeat in the Quarter-Finals the following year, and his 2008 campaign came to an end courtesy of an 8-17 semi-final exit.
Priestley's failure to win the World Matchplay is all the more surprising given that he has won several other Matchplay titles including the British Matchplay, the Skol Matchplay, and the UK Matchplay.
Though he has won a number of non-televised ranking events over the years, Priestley has underachieved and on some occasions underperformed on the big stage; his perennial struggle to turn great performances into World titles shows this. Indeed, Priestley was close to quitting darts in 2004, unhappy with his form and had problems with his sight, but in typically determined style he returned to top form in 2005. That year he reached his first major semi-final in 5 years at the World Grand Prix in Dublin. Priestley repeated that feat the following year and ended 2006 with a top-three ranking.
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