Other Achievements
Despite living in the shadow of Taylor for much of his career, Priestley nonetheless has accomplished some unique achievements.
He is the only man to date to win both the BDO and PDC World Championships at his first attempt; Priestley won the 1991 BDO title in his first appearance in the main draw of the Lakeside event, while he won the inaugural PDC World Professional Darts Championship in 1994.
He is the first man to average over 100 in a World Championship final. His average of 102 in the 1996 WDC World Championship Final came in a 4-6 loss to Taylor. It remains the highest average of a losing World Championship finalist and has only since been bettered in a World final by Taylor himself.
In 1992, Priestley entered the 1993 Embassy World Championship as the number-one seed. In his first-round tie against Jocky Wilson, he set a new record for the highest match average (102.6) at the championship, which stood until 2004. In his autobiography, Bobby Dazzler, Bobby George recalled that, during the same championship, he played Priestley in a best of nine-leg practice match. Priestley had a dart for a perfect 9-dart finish in every leg en route to recording a 5-0 win using a total of only 49 darts (10, 10, 10, 10, and 9). George stated that, although it was only a practice match, this was the greatest Lakeside performance he has ever seen and was disappointed that Priestley's surprise 2nd-round defeat to Steve Beaton cost him a substantial wager that he had understandably placed on Priestley winning his second Embassy title.
In his World Championship debut in 1991 he set a new tournament record for 180s (25). That record was broken by Mike Gregory in 1992.
Priestley held the number-one spot in the PDC world rankings between November 1994 and April 1995 and was seeded number-one for the WDC World Championships of 1995 and 1997.
In 1997 Priestley won the British Classic in Blackpool, notable for being the first BDO event which PDC players were allowed to enter - as a result of the Tomlin Order - since the 1993 split. Priestley also took the pairs title with Taylor. At around this time, Priestley also took part in a 'Battle of the Champions' contest to mark the resolution of the dispute between the governing bodies. In a match-up of 1994 World Champions, Priestley comfortably defeated Part 3-0 in sets.
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