Smith needs to see a sports psychologist. The misses were one thing (and I do appreciate that he needs to play his way and at his speed) but in the latter stages he was throwing like a very average pub player. He wasn't giving himself any chance to compose himself and think about how he might change the flow of the match. Consequently he was beaten much earlier than that final leg and if he carries on doing that he will continue to get the same result.
I am not sure what Smith averaged in the last 2 sets but I’ve been a pub player for 35 years and would bet that 99% of the players I’ve played with and against can only dream of performing how Smith did in those 2 sets. the current season London superleague top 3 dart average is 85 and the current top county 3 dart average is 90. They are the elite of the pub/club players. An average pub player would be lucky to remain standing if they were playing on stage under the conditions last night.
Set 11: Average: Smith 105.92 , Wright 112.73 Checkouts: 0/2 Smith (alot of doubles lol) Wright 3/3 100%
Set 12: Average: 104.12 Smith, 113.58 Checkouts: 1/2 Smith 50%, 3/4 Wright 75%
So that basically backs up my comments, in the last two sets where he appears off, he averaged above 100 and Peter Wright stepped up, created more openings.
Following where he could have gone 6-4 up, so clearly went off the boil
@Addick Addict makes a good point about Smith and the speed he throws at. A couple of people on here yesterday correctly called that as a factor and how if Wright slowed the game down it would suit him so much more.
When Smith was hammering in big scores and throwing instinctively he was winning and winning well, but like a boxer who is dangerous early if the opponent can weather the storm and stay in the fight it makes for a really tight bout and a battle of who can hold their nerve. Smith has to learn to take a breath especially when things aren't going all his way, darts matches are won on hitting doubles and Wright was taking his time and lining them up whereas Smith, especially towards the end was still throwing fast on instinct. If he can learn to slow his game down or at least learn to cope when someone else slows the game down he will be a real force
I called it when he played Challan Rydz who also goes off like a train. Wright used all his experience and slowed the game down. Smith walked into the same trap.
Not sure what Smith could have done to avoid that 'trap'. Wright isn't the quickest player but he did nothing last night that anyone could call gamesmanship.
It's not gamesmanship, it's just know-how and taking the time to compose himself.
At one point after Smith had thrown Wright took a slow walk, then a step over to the side to check/ask the scorer what he needed. He needed double 9, as if he didn't know what he needed.
Agree with others that Smith needs to learn to take a step back sometimes rather than walking straight up and throwing all 3 darts in about 7 seconds. Then again the bloke just won 200k so who am i to tell him how to play the game!
I'm a bit late to this particular party as I only watched the final last night.
You'd have to be a hard-arsed bastard not to have felt for Michael Smith during the last leg and then post-match. If it hadn't been for Covid protocols I'm sure Wright would have wandered over to him and given him a big hug in a bigger and hairier re-enactment of Jana Novotna at the Wimbledon Singles Final with the Duchess of Kent.
For years in the coverage of the BDO World Championships Mr Bobby George would always roll out the following line:
Trebles for show, doubles for dough
The 180s, big scores, and astronomical averages look great and excite crowds but if you can't hit the outer ring (or the little spot in the middle) when you need to it all counts for nought.
Bully Boy will, understandably, be devastated at losing that match to rack up yet another major final defeat but he'd do well to have a word with the man who beat him on Monday night as he suffered a similar affliction earlier in his career:
Admittedly Wright's final woes were all caused by one man (initially at least) and Snakey's first major title came in an event where MvG was absent because of a crook back but he's managed to turn around a record of 11 defeats in 12 finals to a recent run of 6 wins in 7.
Moving off-stage ... will someone please sort out the idiots in the crowd?! The crowds in this year's tournament have been some of the worst in recent years.
I appreciate that darts is a sport that needs a lively audience but, bugger me, there are some numbnuts there these days with their inane chanting. There should be a code of conduct in place whereby anyone who partakes of a "boring, boring tables", "Yaya/Kolo Toure", "Don't take me home ..." chant should be ejected from the auditorium immediately. You've paid a sizeable wedge to attend so watch the bloody game and support the players, don't just get wankered on weak-as-piss lager and act like a complete tool.
More importantly, anyone who boos a player when they are throwing their darts should be ejected and banned for life. By all means dish out the usual "unfriendly" welcome in the walk-on and after the three darts have been thrown but during a visit to the oche it is disrespectful and out of order.
Premier League ... who's going to be in it?
This is the current top 20 in the PDC Order of Merit:
Position Name Value
1 Gerwyn Price £1,206,750
2 Peter Wright £1,191,500
3 Michael van Gerwen £656,750
4 James Wade £564,750
5 Michael Smith £540,750
6 Gary Anderson £487,500
7 Jose de Sousa £429,750
8 Jonny Clayton £415,250
9 Dimitri Van den Bergh £408,750
10 Rob Cross £357,000 ------------------------------
11 Joe Cullen £313,750
12 Krzysztof Ratajski £310,250
13 Dave Chisnall £288,000
14 Nathan Aspinall £275,000
15 Dirk van Duijvenbode £271,750
16 Ryan Searle £261,250
17 Mervyn King £241,250
18 Danny Noppert £233,750
19 Luke Humphries £224,500
20 Stephen Bunting £224,250
In previous years the top four (Price, Wright, MvG, Wade) have qualified automatically with the PDC and Sky then having their own wildcard picks to make up the ten participants. The PDC would err towards merit whilst Sky, unsurprisingly, tend towards crowd favourites even if form didn't necessarily warrant inclusion (RvB, I'm looking at you with the Rotterdam night on the schedule).
If you were going to deviate from the top ten to bring in, say, Aspinall or Searle (who I like a lot) who do you leave out? That would be a fairly sporty line up on their own.
Outside the (qualifying) top four, Smith is the World Championship runner-up, Anderson reached the semi-final, Clayton is the reigning Premier League champion beating de Sousa in the final last year. That's taken care of the top eight, leaving Dimitri and Cross as the "vulnerable" players.
They surely can't be thinking of getting Barney back after just coming back from retirement and as for Fallon Sherrock, she needs to produce a lot more on a regular basis to be considered for the Premier League.
Will they do what they did last year (albeit because the Premier League was starting later because of Covid) and wait until the UK Masters has finished (end of january) before confirming the final spots?
i agree with some of the crowd things, its getting ridiculous. I dont think they can ever stop them singing Yaya/Kolo, or even the 'dont take me home' personally those chants dont annoy me but obviously its a bit boring now as its every year. The Scotland one was funny during Euros/ maybe at start but that was done to death this year.
Completely agree about the courtesy when the players are at the oche, people should not be booing and should be respectful, if the odd song is in full flow fair enough but its a joke at the moment and would love them to eject anyone booing as they step up to throw, agree its different in the entrance or a bit of banter but thats over the top.
On paper the top 10 would pretty much please most, but not sure they would ever do that. I hope they dont have the wildcard each week as to me it devalues it, it might give someone a chance but its hardly fair when someone will get someone ranked say 11, then someone will get an easy draw. You could probably make a case for alot in that 11-20 too which is good, but i am sure Cross and Dmitri will be looking over their shoulders, would be a shame from a personal point of view as they are probably my fave two players lol
@Briston_Addick - didn't want to reply directly to your post as it's so long but Wright must have absolutely been sick of the sight of van Gerwen until 2020!
Premier League Darts: Tournament to undergo the most radical change in its history
The Premier League will feature eight players in 2022, with the 16 league nights being individual events comprising the quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final over the best of 11 legs - with a £10,000 bonus to each night's winner; watch the darting drama unfold live on Sky Sports!
I reckon the reason the PDC hadn't announced yesterday that the Masters winner would get a place in the Premier League this year is because of the new format and only eight places available.
Seven of the eight pick themselves (Price, Wright, MvG, Wade, Smith, Anderson, Clayton) and I suppose they didn't want to run the risk of a 'lesser light/lower profile' player such as de Sousa 'qualifying' when they could possibly have someone like Chizzy or Cullen from that route, or picking Dmitri VdB or Cross as a 'wild card'.
In the first semi-final he had a wonderful match against the young Irishman, Keane Barry. It was a very high-quality affair with Bully Boy reeling off 9 consecutive legs to come from 6-2 down to win 11-6. Barry did nothing wrong, he just got blown away by a superb performance by Smith.
At that point in proceedings the high quality decided it had had enough for the evening and buggered off to the bar. The second semi between Danny Noppert and William O'Connor was slow, turgid, dreadful. My wife and I were watching the session on a bit of delay so we could fast-forward through adverts etc and even on x6 speed the match seemed to take longer than the first semi, Noppert eventually winning 11-9
The final got off to a good start with Smith racing into a 3-0 lead but from that point he was playing as though he'd been on a three-week drinking session and borrowed somebody else's hands to throw a bag of nails at the board. As the match wore on you could see the confidence draining from his face and it was inevitable he was going to crack and lose. The only surprise was that it went all the way to the final leg before he lost.
At this moment in time I can't see Michael Smith winning a major TV title, which will be a real shame as he's a good player - I love watching him play. Last night was the best chance he's going to get and still he managed to stuff it up.
The main ranking news from the weekend is that Peter Wright has moved up to number one, replacing Gerwyn Price. Michael Smith has a minor consolation of moving ahead of MVG into fourth. Noppert's win has seen him jump up to 12th.
Didn't end up watching this but honestly not surprised Smith lost. It's definately a mental thing for him, wonder if he has thought about seeing a sports therapist as he's good enough to win everything, if he was throwing darts in the pub
I was gutted for him, i still see him winning one sooner rather than later but thats got to be the greatest chance he's had. Early on he should have been 5-0 up and lost a few crucial legs around the breaks which kept Noppert in it, Noppert can play alot better but took his chances at least. I actually thought Noppert was going to breakthrough a few years back, was hitting 100 averages and doing well on the floor events but never really transitioned into the big ones. Didn't help that his pace makes it hard for anyone to get any rythm, but still Smith needs to learn to deal with that.
Fingers Crossed Bully boy can win something of note this year, you can tell he really struggles mentally with it already. Once he does, he will win several, just a matter of time you would think.
When you watch him, it feels like his first dart is crucial. He gets it in the triple twenty and he scores big, he doesn't and he often scores relatively small.
When you watch him, it feels like his first dart is crucial. He gets it in the triple twenty and he scores big, he doesn't and he often scores relatively small.
Nail on the head. Also feel he needs to slow down on some of the doubles, although it works and its his style just look at other players who are more clinical on the doubles.
When you watch him, it feels like his first dart is crucial. He gets it in the triple twenty and he scores big, he doesn't and he often scores relatively small.
Nail on the head. Also feel he needs to slow down on some of the doubles, although it works and its his style just look at other players who are more clinical on the doubles.
He did mention that in one of his interviews over the weekend.
As he throws quickly he doesn't have time to over-think a dart and therefore doesn't have a chance to get too nervous about it whereas if he slowed down there would be too much "thinking time" between each dart.
Of course, you still have the time when your opponent is throwing to do plenty of thinking and worrying.
If you're playing the likes of Rapid Ricky Evans that means about 1.3 seconds of thinking time which isn't enough time to get into panic mode; in the final on Sunday Noppert was playing so slow he had about quarter of an hour between visits to the oche so no wonder he crashed.
Comments
At one point after Smith had thrown Wright took a slow walk, then a step over to the side to check/ask the scorer what he needed. He needed double 9, as if he didn't know what he needed.
Agree with others that Smith needs to learn to take a step back sometimes rather than walking straight up and throwing all 3 darts in about 7 seconds. Then again the bloke just won 200k so who am i to tell him how to play the game!
You'd have to be a hard-arsed bastard not to have felt for Michael Smith during the last leg and then post-match. If it hadn't been for Covid protocols I'm sure Wright would have wandered over to him and given him a big hug in a bigger and hairier re-enactment of Jana Novotna at the Wimbledon Singles Final with the Duchess of Kent.
For years in the coverage of the BDO World Championships Mr Bobby George would always roll out the following line:
Trebles for show, doubles for dough
The 180s, big scores, and astronomical averages look great and excite crowds but if you can't hit the outer ring (or the little spot in the middle) when you need to it all counts for nought.
Bully Boy will, understandably, be devastated at losing that match to rack up yet another major final defeat but he'd do well to have a word with the man who beat him on Monday night as he suffered a similar affliction earlier in his career:
Admittedly Wright's final woes were all caused by one man (initially at least) and Snakey's first major title came in an event where MvG was absent because of a crook back but he's managed to turn around a record of 11 defeats in 12 finals to a recent run of 6 wins in 7.
Moving off-stage ... will someone please sort out the idiots in the crowd?! The crowds in this year's tournament have been some of the worst in recent years.
I appreciate that darts is a sport that needs a lively audience but, bugger me, there are some numbnuts there these days with their inane chanting. There should be a code of conduct in place whereby anyone who partakes of a "boring, boring tables", "Yaya/Kolo Toure", "Don't take me home ..." chant should be ejected from the auditorium immediately. You've paid a sizeable wedge to attend so watch the bloody game and support the players, don't just get wankered on weak-as-piss lager and act like a complete tool.
More importantly, anyone who boos a player when they are throwing their darts should be ejected and banned for life. By all means dish out the usual "unfriendly" welcome in the walk-on and after the three darts have been thrown but during a visit to the oche it is disrespectful and out of order.
Premier League ... who's going to be in it?
This is the current top 20 in the PDC Order of Merit:
------------------------------
In previous years the top four (Price, Wright, MvG, Wade) have qualified automatically with the PDC and Sky then having their own wildcard picks to make up the ten participants. The PDC would err towards merit whilst Sky, unsurprisingly, tend towards crowd favourites even if form didn't necessarily warrant inclusion (RvB, I'm looking at you with the Rotterdam night on the schedule).
If you were going to deviate from the top ten to bring in, say, Aspinall or Searle (who I like a lot) who do you leave out? That would be a fairly sporty line up on their own.
Outside the (qualifying) top four, Smith is the World Championship runner-up, Anderson reached the semi-final, Clayton is the reigning Premier League champion beating de Sousa in the final last year. That's taken care of the top eight, leaving Dimitri and Cross as the "vulnerable" players.
They surely can't be thinking of getting Barney back after just coming back from retirement and as for Fallon Sherrock, she needs to produce a lot more on a regular basis to be considered for the Premier League.
Will they do what they did last year (albeit because the Premier League was starting later because of Covid) and wait until the UK Masters has finished (end of january) before confirming the final spots?
I'd be happy with the top ten as it is.
Completely agree about the courtesy when the players are at the oche, people should not be booing and should be respectful, if the odd song is in full flow fair enough but its a joke at the moment and would love them to eject anyone booing as they step up to throw, agree its different in the entrance or a bit of banter but thats over the top.
On paper the top 10 would pretty much please most, but not sure they would ever do that. I hope they dont have the wildcard each week as to me it devalues it, it might give someone a chance but its hardly fair when someone will get someone ranked say 11, then someone will get an easy draw. You could probably make a case for alot in that 11-20 too which is good, but i am sure Cross and Dmitri will be looking over their shoulders, would be a shame from a personal point of view as they are probably my fave two players lol
Premier League Darts: Tournament to undergo the most radical change in its history
The Premier League will feature eight players in 2022, with the 16 league nights being individual events comprising the quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final over the best of 11 legs - with a £10,000 bonus to each night's winner; watch the darting drama unfold live on Sky Sports!
Just 4 days before the first night.
Damn that interview was emotional.
Seven of the eight pick themselves (Price, Wright, MvG, Wade, Smith, Anderson, Clayton) and I suppose they didn't want to run the risk of a 'lesser light/lower profile' player such as de Sousa 'qualifying' when they could possibly have someone like Chizzy or Cullen from that route, or picking Dmitri VdB or Cross as a 'wild card'.
Joe should get the final spot.
https://www.pdc.tv/news/2022/01/31/cullen-make-debut-2022-cazoo-premier-league-line-confirmed
The crowd is……LOUD
Finals night last night.
Oh dear Michael Smith
In the first semi-final he had a wonderful match against the young Irishman, Keane Barry. It was a very high-quality affair with Bully Boy reeling off 9 consecutive legs to come from 6-2 down to win 11-6. Barry did nothing wrong, he just got blown away by a superb performance by Smith.
At that point in proceedings the high quality decided it had had enough for the evening and buggered off to the bar. The second semi between Danny Noppert and William O'Connor was slow, turgid, dreadful. My wife and I were watching the session on a bit of delay so we could fast-forward through adverts etc and even on x6 speed the match seemed to take longer than the first semi, Noppert eventually winning 11-9
The final got off to a good start with Smith racing into a 3-0 lead but from that point he was playing as though he'd been on a three-week drinking session and borrowed somebody else's hands to throw a bag of nails at the board. As the match wore on you could see the confidence draining from his face and it was inevitable he was going to crack and lose. The only surprise was that it went all the way to the final leg before he lost.
At this moment in time I can't see Michael Smith winning a major TV title, which will be a real shame as he's a good player - I love watching him play. Last night was the best chance he's going to get and still he managed to stuff it up.
The main ranking news from the weekend is that Peter Wright has moved up to number one, replacing Gerwyn Price. Michael Smith has a minor consolation of moving ahead of MVG into fourth. Noppert's win has seen him jump up to 12th.
Fingers Crossed Bully boy can win something of note this year, you can tell he really struggles mentally with it already. Once he does, he will win several, just a matter of time you would think.
As he throws quickly he doesn't have time to over-think a dart and therefore doesn't have a chance to get too nervous about it whereas if he slowed down there would be too much "thinking time" between each dart.
Of course, you still have the time when your opponent is throwing to do plenty of thinking and worrying.
If you're playing the likes of Rapid Ricky Evans that means about 1.3 seconds of thinking time which isn't enough time to get into panic mode; in the final on Sunday Noppert was playing so slow he had about quarter of an hour between visits to the oche so no wonder he crashed.