Merseyside-born darts star Michael Smith has won the PDC World Championships.
Smith, dubbed "Bully Boy" by fans, came close to glory last year as he reached the 2022 World Championship final, where he was defeated by Peter Wright. The 32-year-old has now gone one better, by beating Michael Van Gerwen 7-4 in the final at Alexandra Palace.
Smith will take home £500k in prize money.
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In a thrilling match, dubbed by some as "the best game ever", at times it looked like Smith would be defeated. But he held on before storming ahead to become the World Champion.
Born in St Helens in 1990, Smith began playing darts as a teenager - and after falling off his bike on the way to St Cuthbert's School at age 15, he was left on crutches for months. During this time, Smith threw his first ever 180.
The nickname Bully Boy actually has nothing to do with darts, as Smith explained a few years ago. He said: “I used to work on a cattle farm in Littleborough and I loved it, but it was hard graft and I wouldn’t do it for a living. That’s where I got my Bully Boy nickname – it was nothing to do with darts. When the cows gave birth, the farm owner – who used to be a bouncer at my auntie’s pub – got me to help with tagging the new-born calves."
“For 35 minutes, I got slammed in cowpats and cow’s muck. They didn’t always like it and I had one on its back, my fingers in its nose, legs in the air. He called me a bully, and that’s how the nickname stuck.
By 2012, he was a professional dart player, taking part in the World Championships that same year, however he would exit after defeat in the first round. Bully Boy would fail to advance past the third round until 2016, when he reached the quarter finals.
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