problems with his eyesight. He returned to better form in 2005 following his World Matchplay epic against Taylor. That year he reached his first major semi-final in five years at the World Grand Prix in Dublin. Priestley repeated that feat the following year and ended 2006 with a top-three ranking behind Taylor and Colin Lloyd. Friendship and rivalry with Phil Taylor Priestley is good friends with Taylor, who describes Priestley as a darting "soul-mate" in his autobiography. During the early years of the PDC, Priestley and Taylor had an agreement where they would share prize money won at events. The arrangement lasted between 1994 and 2000 and made sound financial sense given that, in Taylor's words, they "cherry-picked most tournaments" (contesting 5 of the 7 World Championship Finals in that time) and also struggled for exhibition work due to the dispute with the BDO. The agreement eventually ended when the prize money grew to a level where the players could individually sustain a better living and this ironically coincided with Priestley's sharp dip in form. Taylor and Priestley first met in major competition in the 1990 World Masters. Taylor won that semi final encounter en route to the title. Priestley quickly assumed the upper hand in their rivalry, however, as he defeated Taylor in the quarter finals of the 1991 World Championship, where Priestley trailed 1–3 and survived two match darts against him in the fifth set, before coming back to win the match, hitting a 161 outshot in the final leg of the match to win 4–3 in sets. Priestley went on to win the 1991 World Championship. Priestley defeated Taylor again later in the year in the 1991 British Matchplay final. Their early meetings in the WDC were also won by Priestley, who defeated Taylor in the quarter finals of the very first WDC event, the 1992 Lada UK Masters, and in the final of the very first WDC World Championship in 1994, the latter seeing Priestley win by 6–1 in sets. Priestley also defeated Taylor in the Last 16 of the 1995 UK Matchplay, before Taylor beat Priestley in the 1995 World Matchplay final. The peak of the Taylor/Priestley rivalry arguably came in the 1996 WDC World Championship Final. Although Taylor was, at 1/6, an excessively hot favourite after his 1995 successes of winning both the World Championship and the World Matchplay, while Priestley was quoted at