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On Monday evening Michael Smith will meet Peter Wright in the final of the Darts World Cup. The Englishman’s life would have been different had he not had a serious accident 15 years ago.
The Englishman found his way back to darts in a bicycle accident.
imago images / Action Plus
In a crazy quarter-final, he threw defending champion Gerwyn Price from the World Cup tournament.
imago images / Action Plus
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On Monday evening, Michael Smith will duel with Peter Wright in the final of the Darts World Cup.
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The Englishman was up this far three years ago, but then fell into a crisis.
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The “Bully Boy” owes his darts career to a bicycle accident and a broken off training course.
Michael Smith should actually be standing in a workshop today, processing wood. But the 30-year-old will be in the final of the Darts World Cup on Monday evening, probably the biggest game of his career. The Englishman owes the fact that he is throwing arrows today instead of using a hammer and saw to a bicycle accident 15 years ago.
At that time, Smith had a serious accident on the way to school. Diagnosis: hip fracture, 16 weeks of crutches. As a little boy he had occasionally played darts, but due to his accident and the associated temporary restrictions, the “Bully Boy”, his nickname, resumes throwing arrows. Smith manages his very first 180 with crutches.
After finishing school, he trained as a carpenter, but skipped his final exam because he would rather take part in a darts tournament. It’s an unconventional decision, but one that should pay off for Smith.
Two difficult years
Today’s father of two quickly draws attention to himself. In 2012 he won his first professional tournament, a year later he was junior world champion. From then on, Smith’s career took off and culminated in the 2019 World Cup final. After marching furiously to the final, he is clearly defeated by the Dutchman Michael van Gerwen. There is a break between the 30-year-old and the biggest tournament of the year.
He has appeared twice in the “Ally Pally” in the past few years, and Smith twice ended after the first game. Otherwise things are not really going well for the Englishman either. He slipped in the world rankings and at the beginning of 2020, for the first time in three years, did not receive any of the ten tickets for the Premier League, an invitation tournament for the best players in the world.
World Cup final now against Wright
Virtually out of nowhere, Smith has now returned to the spotlight at the World Cup. In his first game he already played the highest average of 106.32 (an average of three darts) of the entire tournament. In the last sixteen he defeated Jonny Clayton in a spectacular duel, before he finally knocked defending champion and world number one, Gerwyn Price, out of the tournament in the quarter-finals. In the semifinals, Smith finally cleared the English world number four, James Wade, out of the way.
But it is not the first time that the “Bully Boy” is only one victory away from the greatest success of his career. In addition to the lost final of 2019, Smith has been in the final of a major tournament three times in the past few years. Every time the man from near Liverpool left the stage as a loser. That should change on Monday evening. With the Scot Peter Wright, the world number two and the world champion of 2020 is waiting for Smith.
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