“I SAID TO HIM AFTER THE GAME: PLEASE DON’T DO THAT AGAIN” – MICHAEL SMITH FIRED UP AFTER ACCUSATIONS FROM JEFF SMITH AT US

Michael Smith impressed on Friday night at the 2024 Nordic Darts Masters. The former world champion eased into the quarter-finals with a comprehensive 6-1 win over Paavo Myller.

Smith started like a house on fire, racing into an early 2-0 lead with legs of 11 and 12. Despite a scrappier third leg seeing BullyBoy miss six darts at double, allowing Myller to get himself on the board, Smith was clearly the better of the two players. Reeling off the next four legs unanswered, Smith sealed the 6-1 win averaging 102.56, just short of 25 points higher than his opponent.

“I think there were two moments in the game where I just fell asleep and I felt so relaxed and so comfortable,” Smith assesses of his performance in his post-match interview with Online Darts. “I felt really good then, it felt smooth. I was telling my manager, I missed six nine-darters upstairs, so if I didn’t score well I would be fuming. Then I literally kicked off the game with 140, 140, 180 and it was all good.”

Last time out at the World Series of Darts, Smith wasn’t firing on quite the same level as he bowed out in the first round to Canadian Jeff Smith. “That was one of the worst I’ve ever felt. I know I lost there last year in the first round, but losing against Jeff, I let everything get to me,” ‘BullyBoy’ recalls. “I let what he was doing get to me, I let myself get to myself and so today, I had to prove a point.”

When pressed on what exactly happened on stage between the two Smiths in New York, ‘BullyBoy’ gave a wry smile before replying. “He’s called ‘The Silencer’ for a reason. He was walking past me and talking, doing this (waves arms ed.), stamping and I said to him after the game: Please don’t do that again. And he said he won’t so he admitted it!” Smith recalls. “Then I saw his post-match interview and he was saying I was accusing him of things, so why admit it? But yeah, it’s one of them.”

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