Michael Smith is the world champion at last. Via nine-dart perfection, in the sport’s greatest leg, “Bully Boy” put to bed two runner-up finishes in the darts showpiece and overcame a serial, usually relentless, champion. What can touch sport like this?
Smith pointed at the Sid Waddell Trophy in disbelief that it was his. In 2019 he was beaten by Michael van Gerwen, and 12 months ago it was Peter Wright who relegated him to second place. He had a reputation as the nearly man, finally winning a major at the Grand Slam of Darts in November. This time Van Gerwen could not muster enough to win a fourth world title and devastate Smith once more and the 32-year-old from St Helens averaged above 100 for the first time in a final. He is the new world No 1 and the recipient of £500,000. “I want to do what this man’s done,” Smith said of Van Gerwen. “He took over the sport.”
Darts is the simplest of games, usually in pubs and bars, here in front of more than 3,000 people at a venue which recently hosted Paolo Nutini and Kasabian. The absurdity of that contrast was matched by the sporting theatre on stage, the absence and sudden presence of nerves and momentum. Other matches will be of higher quality — Van Gerwen’s three-dart average was below 100 for the first time in the tournament — but none will be remembered as fondly by Smith, nor by those who witnessed the third leg of the second set. It was from the gods.
After two visits apiece, both men were on a nine-darter. Van Gerwen found two treble 20s but missed double 12. Up stepped Smith, needing 141: treble 20, treble 19, double 12. It was only the second perfect leg in a world final, after Adrian Lewis in 2011, and it ended Van Gerwen’s run of 13 consecutive sets won, stretching back to the fourth round. In the commentary box, there was enough energy in Wayne Mardle’s convulsing body to power the building. Smith averaged 128.09 per three darts in the second set, Van Gerwen somehow second best on 120.73. You get a nosebleed just from reading how high those numbers are.
Van Gerwen was off key from the beginning and he needed nine darts at double to take the second leg. Smith had not been close or accurate enough to steal, and the Dutchman took a 1-0 lead. Then we were treated to the astronomical, mesmeric levels of 17 perfect darts before there was inevitably a crash in scoring. Yet it remained compelling.
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Both men lived the vagaries of sport, unable to locate the board one minute and then unable to miss it. Van Gerwen finished off a 90 checkout with a pair of double 18s — exhibition darts on the grandest stage — en route to a whitewash in the fourth set, and he took the lead in the fifth. He would lose control of mind and arm and find it again amid the discomfort, but never for long enough. In the seventh set he even lost track of the match and thought it had ended a leg early.
Smith won four sets on the spin to make it 6-3, but the final leg is the hardest to win. Van Gerwen took the tenth set and was 2-0 up in the 11th. Smith found his range again, checking out 106 and then succeeding with double seven, and now he was throwing for the title.
He opened with a pair of 180s, titillating the crowd by leaving another 141 for perfection. This time he could manage only 109 and after hitting single 16 with his first dart, in went double eight. He ran straight down to the crowd, to his wife, Dagmara, and two sons, Michael and Kasper. Two more things to put to bed after the defeats of the past.
“I don’t think I can describe it,” Smith said. “All that heartache that I’ve been through and finally I got to lift the trophy tonight. For me, it’s when I look at my kids and tell them, ‘If you’re going to quit, don’t bother.’ I lost eight [majors] in a row, now I’ve won the ninth and tenth.
“This will never be topped, even if I win a second.”
