From Glassboys to Grand Slam darts glory for Michael Smith

And his epic weekend – which saw him beat Nathan Aspinall in the final in Wolverhampton – started well, with Stourbridge winning 3-1 at AFC Rushden & Diamonds in the Southern Central Premier game.

Stourbridge chairman Andy Pountney has sponsored Smith for the last year with his Andy Freight company logo on the ‘Bully Boy’s’ shirt. The tie up came about through Smith’s manager Mark Pritchard, from Brierley Hill, who is a Stourbridge fan.

The new champion did a sold out exhibition at the football club in the eve of the tournament and was invited to take in the Rushden game and meet the players afterwards as he had a free day on Saturday.

It proved good preparation as Smith – who had lost in eight previous big-stage ranking finals – fulfilled his darting destiny with an emphatic 16-5 success against Aspinall in Sunday’s showpiece at the Aldersley Leisure Village.

The St Helens-based star was featuring in his fourth televised final of 2022, having succumbed in the World Championship, UK Open and European Championship deciders earlier this year. The 31-year-old produced a dominant display to scoop the £150,000 top prize and become the seventh different winner of the coveted Eric Bristow Trophy.

“I’m used to giving the runner-up speech,” joked Smith, who averaged 96, landed nine 180s and converted 50 per cent of his attempts at double to seal a landmark victory.

“I was so nervous and In the first few legs I was shaking like mad, but then Nathan started to miss doubles and let me in.

“Nathan is a quality player and if he had got going it would have been a totally different game.

“Every time I got a shot I took it out, and then I started to find my scoring but my doubles stayed, so happy days.

“Nobody can take this away from me now. It’s a big weight off my shoulders because I had become known for falling at the final hurdle

“I’m going to enjoy this until Thursday and then on Friday it’s a new event, and now I’ve got this title, who knows?”

Smith performed magnificently throughout the week in Wolverhampton – earning a £3,500 bonus for topping Group C.

He sealed his place in the final with a 16-12 semi-final success against 2012 champion Raymond van Barneveld earlier on the Sunday, crashing in 17 maximums in the process.

n Fallon Sherrock has been awarded a place at the forthcoming Cazoo World Darts Championship.

The 28-year-old, who became the first woman to win matches at the event three years ago, qualifies as champion of the Betfred Women’s World Matchplay.

Sherrock defeated Aileen de Graaf at the World Matchplay decider in Blackpool in July, and she said: “That was a wonderful day for me and I’m proud to have won, and it’s great that I will now get to go back to Ally Pally. The PDC have done amazing things for women’s darts in recent years and that’s given us players a platform to play at the highest level.” Sherrock joins Lisa Ashton and Beau Greaves, who have earned their spots as the top two players from the PDC Women’s Series Order of Merit.

The PDC also announced increased prize money for the Women’s Series in 2023, with a total of £10,000 on offer at each of the 24 events.