KIERAN GILL: Michael Smith’s maiden World Darts Championship win had everything needed to prove once and for all that darts IS a sport… with drama, talent and fine margins – not to mention the best leg EVER seen!
Yes, it is a sport. Away from the gimmicks, the Peter Wright war paint, the Gerwyn Price pantomime villainy, the blokes dressed as Spice Girls at Alexandra Palace and the Power Rangers telling the Ghostbusters they can’t afford the tables, there is skill to this game.
Try standing 7ft 9.25in away from a dartboard and throwing an arrow into treble 20, let alone three in succession, and you will soon appreciate what those chaps do on the TV at Christmas.
Tuesday’s World Darts Championship final between Michael Smith and Michael van Gerwen had it all, including the greatest leg of darts ever seen. First, Van Gerwen missed double 12 for a nine-darter. Then, Smith landed double 12 for a nine-darter of his own. All in the same leg, seconds apart. Ally Pally erupted like never before.
Michael Smith and Michael van Gerwen played out one of the greatest finals in the history of darts
It was such a sensational sporting moment that Sky Sports’ likeable analyst Wayne Mardle lost his voice, forcing him to leave the commentary booth. He was left speechless, literally.
The Ally Pally crowd sang ‘darts is coming home’ as the 32-year-old Englishman Smith won 7-4, pocketing the £500,000 prize. Quite the leap from 1980 when Eric Bristow exited Stoke’s smoky Jollees nightclub with a cheque for £4,500.
It is a sport that has grown since the days when the late, great Jocky Wilson would stand with his darts in one hand and a cigarette in the other, and better still, you can try this at home.
Try sending three arrows into treble20 from 7ft 9.25in away and you will appreciate how difficult darts actually is
I somehow convinced my wife, Jemma, to let me put up a dartboard in our downstairs backroom during the second coronavirus lockdown.
I promised the walls would be safe (they weren’t). I told her she might get into it (she didn’t). I swore I wouldn’t waste money on overpriced sets of darts (I did). I vowed not to give myself one of those daft nicknames (I’m still open to suggestions).
But it is only once you start throwing that you comprehend it is not so easy to direct that dart in your hand. I’ve hit one 180 to date and got so excited, I screamed. Jemma sprinted downstairs to see what was wrong and after her eyes had rolled back to the front, I’m sad enough to have asked her to take my picture with my one and only moment of darting perfection.
Darts has allowed Smith – who used to work on a cattle farm in Littleborough – to make himself into a millionaire
Sadly, I won’t ever grace the Ally Pally stage or be cashing cheques worth £500,000. But it is the beauty of darts that anyone, from anywhere, man or woman, could. It is a sport which enables someone like Smith, who used to work on a cattle farm in Littleborough, hence his ‘Bully Boy’ nickname, to make himself a millionaire.
Tuesday had everything you could want from a sporting showdown. Drama? Definitely. Talent? Totally. An audience? The hangovers will attest to the fun they had the night before. Fine margins? Van Gerwen was the width of a metal wire from a nine-darter that might have tilted this final in his favour, because that is the difference between perfection and failure in this game.
The World Darts Championship may be a ‘Christmas p***-up’ for many. But strip it all back and it’s a player and his darts, eyesight and nerve, calculation and coordination, throwing for glory.
Smith was crowned the new world champion after losing two finals previously. He wept as he hugged his wife, Dagmara, and two sons, Michael Jr and Kasper. Then he showed his competitive side, saying he wants more. So yes, it is a sport.
The newly crowned world champion failed at the same stage in two previous finals
