Taylor reached three major professional finals, the 1978 UK Championship, 1981 Yamaha Organs Trophy and the 1982 Jameson International, but lost them all.

[2] At the 1968 World Amateur Snooker Championship in Australia he won all four of his group matches, then beat Paddy Morgan in the semi-final before securing the title with an 8–7 victory against Max Williams.

[6] There were few professional tournaments in the early 1970s,[6] and Taylor accepted an offer to play exhibition matches at holiday camps.

[8] A match report in Billiards and Snooker magazine was critical of the standard of play by both players, and in particular about Taylor "carelessly" missing pots.

[11] In 1978, Taylor and fellow professional players John Virgo and Jim Meadowcroft were featured discussing their careers in the television programme This England.

[13] He appeared in Pro-celebrity Snooker, partnering Mike Burton (1980), Brian Close (1981), Duggie Brown (1983), and Bill Maynard (1984).

[16] His first major final was the 1978 UK Championship, where after progressing past Maurice Parkin, he eliminated defending champion Patsy Fagan 9–7.

[19] Earlier in the tournament he had topped the round-robin group that also included Ray Reardon, Mountjoy and Graham Miles, then defeated Kirk Stevens 5–3 in the semi-finals.

[16] In the 1988–89 snooker season, the WPBSA held three non-ranking tournaments for players who has been eliminated in the early rounds of specific ranking events.

[34][35] Taylor played at the 2000 World Seniors Masters and defeated Miles in the single-frame format competition, before losing to Willie Thorne in the semi-finals.

[36] He entered the 2010 World Snooker Championship qualifying rounds, aged 66 and playing in first competitive match for 13 years, but lost 1–5 to Paul Wykes.

[13] Reardon made a similar observation, saying that although Taylor "look[ed] so good in practice", he failed to match him nickname: "A fox is a hungry, crafty fighter, but David displays little of those characteristics.

[13] Soon after he had made his last appearance in the televised stages of the world championship in 1987, Taylor and his wife decided to purchase a guest house in Little Bollington near Altrincham in Cheshire.