It was a little before 9pm on a sticky night 11 months ago at Alexandra Palace that Michael Smith threw the nine darts that would change his life for ever. Even now, during his quieter moments, he will go on YouTube and watch them back. The crescendo in the commentator Wayne Mardle’s voice. The thud of the final double 12. The utter pandemonium in the crowd. The greatest adrenaline rush on earth. And, quite simply, the moment at which darts was perfected.
In that moment, you didn’t need to be Smith, or a Smith fan, or even very much of a darts fan, to appreciate the spine-tingling magnitude of what had just occurred. It was an energy and an electricity, an explosion of endorphins that transmitted itself around the world. The video clip has been viewed 25m times on X and 5m times on YouTube. The basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal featured it on his television show. On 30 November, Smith was at St Helens town hall to receive the freedom of the borough.
A reminder, perhaps, that even in this frenetic 12-month sport, a relentless treadmill that takes its top players from New South Wales to New York and pretty much everywhere in between, nothing really cuts through like success at the world championship. This is where careers are gilded, reputations made and broken, dreams fulfilled and dreams crushed.
It is 16 years since the Professional Darts Corporation moved its flagship event from Purfleet in Essex to the Palace and though it could now probably sell out the Great Hall several times over, there it has remained: one of this country’s genuine heritage events, as reliable a staple of the festive season as Mariah Carey and the John Lewis advert.
So, how do you follow perfection? For Smith, 2023 has been the difficult second album. He remains the world No 1 on the PDC’s two-year rolling system, but on a list incorporating this year’s results alone, he would be 15th. He changed his darts supplier in the summer and has badly lacked rhythm and consistency since: second round of the European Championship, group stage of the Grand Slam, first round of the Players Championship Finals. The talent and the hunger are clearly still there. But the aura is fading a little.
Can he still win? Of course. This is the eternal mystery of the tournament: in a packed calendar where the top performers are playing pretty much all the time, the world championship is preceded by a three-week competitive hiatus. Three weeks is a long time in darts. Enough time to find some form and enough time to lose it. Enough time to iron out errors and enough time to dwell on them.
Then there is the unique and protracted rhythm of the tournament itself in a sport where players are more used to competing in multiple games in a day. Assuming Smith wins his opening-night game against Kevin Doets or the flamboyant American Stowe Buntz on Friday – itself no guarantee – it will be 12 days before his next match. This may help to explain why nobody has successfully defended their title for eight years.
Not even the great Michael van Gerwen in his near-invincible prime could manage it. Such is the depth and breadth of ability in the modern sport, a sport in which pretty much anybody can beat anybody on their day. The age of dynasties is over. Nobody will dominate darts the way Phil Taylor once did. It is a tribute to Van Gerwen’s genius – an intermittent genius these days, but a genius all the same – that he fleetingly got close. While his top level is still probably as good as anybody’s, Van Gerwen’s path to a fourth world title is beset with deadly mines.
The world No 18, Stephen Bunting, playing the best darts of his life, is a likely fourth-round opponent. The ruthlessly consistent Danny Noppert or the prodigious 22-year-old Josh Rock await in the quarters. While Van Gerwen still fancies himself as the clear favourite, will always back himself against all comers, he has been losing more and more of these kinds of games in recent years. By any normal standard, two major wins and two major finals would be a decent haul for the year. But Van Gerwen has never judged himself by normal standards.
Smith and Van Gerwen are two of what is a five-man group of favourites. Luke Humphries is probably the best player in the world on form, having won his first three major titles this year. The 2021 winner, Gerwyn Price, has been playing much better this year than his mixed results would suggest, but needs to develop better strategies for dealing with a resolutely hostile crowd. And for all his indifferent form for much of the season, in long-format play under the highest pressure, you can never count out Peter Wright.
Beyond those five there are probably about eight more for whom you could build a cogent case: the World Matchplay champion, Nathan Aspinall; the quirky Rob Cross, Rock and Bunting; the hardy perennial James Wade; the irrepressible Gary Anderson; the timeless Jonny Clayton; the mercurial Dave Chisnall.
A fully fit Dirk van Duijvenbode would be a contender but he has struggled badly with a shoulder injury in recent months. Fallon Sherrock appears to be hitting some form at just the right time and has a winnable first-round game against the unpredictable Jermaine Wattimena. Watch out, too, for the 16-year-old prodigy Luke Littler, the new world youth champion, described by Taylor as the greatest talent he has seen at that age.
Being a professional darts player can be a pretty thankless existence. The schedule is brutal; the setbacks frequent and inexplicable; the bulk of your career is spent on motorways and in budget hotel rooms or scrapping for ranking points in deserted leisure centres in Barnsley or Hildesheim. But still they come: chasing the buzz of a big crowd, dreaming of conquering the Palace, striving above all for the moment of perfection that makes the whole journey worthwhile.
