Back in January, Michael Smith kickstarted his year by winning the World Darts Championship and becoming the world number one in the sport. He beat Michael van Gerwen 7-4 in a brilliant final that featured a leg widely regarded as the best ever.
Both players had two perfect visits, but MVG missed double 12 to achieve a nine dart leg. St Helens man Smith stepped up to the oche needing to throw three perfect darts to achieve the feat his opponent had narrowly missed, and he managed it.
Since winning the World Championship, Smith has had mixed luck this year. He won the inaugural Bahrain Darts Masters 10 days after his World Championship victory by seeing off Welshman Gerwyn Price in the final. Following that, Smith appeared at the Nordic Darts Masters where he made the semi-finals, but he lost out to eventual winner Peter Wright suffering a 11-8 defeat.
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Smith made the semi-finals of the Masters, where he was beaten 7-11 by Chris Dobey who went on to win the competition. In the days following the conclusion to the Masters, Smith was announced in the line-up of the 2023 Premier League, which got underway on in early February.
His performances in the Premier League so far have been inconsistent, and he’s won just one out of 12 nights. Up to this point in the tournament, Smith has exited at the quarter-final stage six times, and at the semi-final stage twice. He has made the final on four occasions.
Smith made his first final on night three in Glasgow. He beat Price in the quarter-finals before seeing off Jonny Clayton in the semis. The final was a clash with Dimitri Van den Bergh, and Smith won 6-4 in his first final appearance of the 2023 Premier League.
He didn’t make the final again until night six, which was contested in Liverpool at the M&S Bank Arena on March 9th. In front of his home crowd, Smith lost 6-4 to Van Gerwen, with the Dutchman becoming the first player to win three consecutive nights in the Premier League.
It was three weeks later on night nine in Berlin that Smith made another final - but he lost 6-4 to Jonny Clayton. He reached the final once again on night 11 in Brighton, where he was beaten 6-4 by Gerwyn Price.
In among the Premier League action there has been a series of Players Championships and European Tours, but Smith hasn’t been performing at his usual standard in these. His best performance so far in the four Players Championships this year has been reaching the quarter-final stage of Players Championship 2. Other than that, he has reached the last 16 once, but has also exited at the first round and the round of 32 in his four performances.
European Tour wise, Smith has reached the last 16 on two occasions, and has also been eliminated at the last 32 stage. However, he won the German Darts Grand Prix on Easter weekend by seeing off Nathan Aspinall 8-5 in the final.
Smith also competed at the UK Open, where he exited at the round of 32 at the hands of Luke Humphries, who won 10-9 in a close contest between the pair.
Last night the Premier League got underway once again, with Smith facing Price in Rotterdam in a replay of last week’s final. The Bully Boy suffered a 6-3 defeat at the hands of the Iceman after going 3-1 up early on.
After failing to pick up points last night Smith moved out of the playoff places, moving down to fifth in the table with Jonny Clayton and last night’s winner Nathan Aspinall climbing into the top four. Smith will face Chris Dobey in next week’s quarter-finals in Leeds. The pair have faced off twice at this stage in this year’s tournament, with Dobey coming out on top on both occasions.
As the Premier League draws to a close with only four nights remaining before the top four progress to the semi-finals at the Alexandra Palace, Smith will be looking to move back up to the top half of the table. He fell short last year, finishing outside the playoff places. His best finish came in 2018, when he was runner up. Smith will be looking to go one better than that this year.
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