The Night a 115.80 Average Wasn’t Enough for Phil Taylor
In the Premier League, Taylor averaged 115.80 in a 7-4 loss to Raymond van Barneveld—reported then as the televised losing-average record.
Phil Taylor recorded a three-dart average of 115.80 but lost 7-4 to Raymond van Barneveld during the 2015 Premier League Darts season. In its review published on 29 May 2015, Sky Sports reported the average and result and described it as the highest losing average in televised darts history at that time.
The qualification is important. This was Taylor’s highest reported average in a televised defeat, not his highest televised average overall. The available contemporary reports also do not establish whether 115.80 remains the televised losing-average record today.
The answer: Taylor averaged 115.80 and lost 7-4
Taylor’s 115.80 average and the 7-4 scoreline provide the compact answer. The match facts are:
| Match fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Taylor average | 115.80 |
| Opponent | Raymond van Barneveld |
| Result | Taylor lost 7-4 |
| Competition | 2015 Premier League Darts |
It is not a rating awarded for style or reputation, and it does not guarantee that the player with the higher-looking number will win enough individual legs to take the match.
That distinction is central to interpreting the figure correctly. Taylor had recorded higher televised averages in victories, so 115.80 was not his career peak. Its historical significance came from combining an exceptional scoring average with defeat.
Nor does the final score erase the quality represented by the average. The two numbers answer different questions: the average summarizes scoring performance across the match, while the 7-4 score records who won the required legs. Van Barneveld won the contest even though Taylor produced a figure that would ordinarily be read as evidence of an extremely strong scoring display.
Why 115.80 was reported as a record
The record designation should be attributed to the contemporary reports rather than presented as the result of a new, comprehensive statistical audit. Sky Sports called it the highest losing average in televised darts history when reviewing the season on 29 May 2015.
An archived contemporary Darts Journalist report made the same claim, describing 115.80 as the highest televised average recorded in defeat. It also placed the performance below four higher Taylor averages, each produced in a victory.
The most defensible historical wording is therefore that 115.80 was reported as the televised losing-average record in 2015. That phrasing preserves what the sources said without treating their claims as an independently verified all-time database result.
It also avoids turning a dated report into an unsupported present-day claim. Neither contemporary source demonstrates that no player has since exceeded 115.80 while losing a televised match. The supplied evidence contains no complete record of later results from which that conclusion could be drawn.
Record comparisons can also depend on the category being measured. A televised match and a live-streamed or non-broadcast match are not necessarily grouped together in historical lists. Consequently, any current record claim would require both an up-to-date results set and a clear definition of which matches qualify. The contemporary evidence supports the 2015 designation, but not a claim that the record remains unbroken.
What a 115.80 three-dart average measures
A three-dart average expresses a player’s scoring as an average per three darts. The standard calculation is:
Total points scored ÷ darts thrown × 3
Under the established definition, bust visits count as complete three-dart visits, while darts not needed after a player completes a leg are not counted as thrown. These conventions form part of the standard three-dart average calculation.
Taylor’s 115.80 therefore does not mean that he scored exactly 115.80 points in a particular visit. Instead, the number converts all the points and counted darts from his match into an equivalent rate of 115.80 points for every three darts thrown.
That makes the statistic useful for comparing scoring performances. One number can summarize a large sequence of visits and indicate how strongly a player scored across the contest. Maintaining a very high average across an entire match requires repeated productive visits rather than one isolated maximum.
The average is still only a broad performance measure. It cannot, by itself, reveal Taylor’s checkout efficiency, identify what happened in each leg or show when either player delivered the decisive visits. Two matches with similar averages can unfold differently because the points may be distributed differently across their legs.
For the same reason, the 115.80 figure does not prove that missed doubles, weak finishing or a particular scoring lapse caused the defeat. Establishing such a cause would require detailed leg-by-leg information and player-level finishing statistics for this match. Those data are not contained in the available reports, so assigning a specific weakness would go beyond the evidence.
An exceptional average, but not Taylor’s highest overall
A losing-average record is a narrower category than an overall televised-average record. The first asks how highly a player averaged while being defeated; the second considers televised performances regardless of the result. Taylor’s 115.80 stood out in the first category precisely because his higher reported performances had ended in wins.
The clearest comparison is Taylor’s 118.66 average in a 9-0 victory over Kevin Painter at the 2010 UK Open. The archived ranking that reported the losing-average record placed that performance—and three other winning Taylor averages—above his 115.80 against Van Barneveld.
The contrast shows why an average should not be used as a substitute for the match result. Against Painter, Taylor’s higher average accompanied a whitewash. Against Van Barneveld, an elite average was not enough to prevent defeat. The statistic describes the rate of scoring, but the scoreline records the outcome.
It would therefore be inaccurate to call 115.80 Taylor’s highest televised average without adding the losing-match qualification. It would also be premature to call it the current all-time losing record without evidence covering the years since the contemporary reports.
The usable answer is straightforward: Phil Taylor averaged 115.80 in a 7-4 loss to Raymond van Barneveld in the 2015 Premier League, a performance reported in 2015 as the televised losing-average record, although its present-day record status remains unresolved.