Taylor reached three major finals, but lost them all. The first was the 1978 UK Championship in 1978 (he lost to Doug Mountjoy 9–15). Then, in 1981, he lost to Steve Davis in the Yamaha Organs Trophy (later the British Open) 6–9, and he lost 6–9 to Tony Knowles in the 1982 Jameson International. The last of these was his only ranking event final; the others would be ranking events in the future but were not at the time he reached the final. In the quarter-finals of this event he beat the then World Champion, Steve Davis 5–3. Three times a defeated quarter-finalist, his best performance in the World Championship was at the 1980 event, when he lost to Cliff Thorburn 7–16 in the semi-final having beaten the number one seed and 6 times World Champion Ray Reardon 13–11 in the quarter-final. His only major tournament win was with Steve Davis and John Spencer during the 1981 State Express World Team Classic for the England team.