Organisers of the Premier League Darts have come under fire from Michael Smith for scheduling the matches ‘the wrong way around’ for Sheffield’s final night of the regular season. After defeating Nathan Aspinall in the quarterfinals, Smith secured the final play-off spot and will now join Michael van Gerwen, Luke Littler, and Luke Humphries at the O2 Arena the following week.
Littler defeated Peter Wright to take the lead in the Premier League standings, but he was defeated by Smith in the semifinals. Bully Boy was disappointed with the Sheffield fixture schedule, but he went on to complete his second nightly victory, easily defeating Humphries 6-3 in the final.
After winning the championship, Smith said to Sky Sports pundit Wayne Mardle, “I believe the schedule was inverted. After all, if Littler won, he won the league, and if I won, I finished third. In my opinion, Littler should have started third and I should have started last.
“After winning our first and second matches, the evening seemed to be coming to an end,then after I won, I turned to face you in the booth and said, “I’m gone, I just want to get home, see my kids, and get ready for next week.”
However, I later had to return and withdraw, even though I realised that the semi-finals were actually the matches for the following week.”
When Smith takes on Littler in the Premier League playoffs, he will be buoyed by his victory over the 17-year-old. Although defeating Littler in Sheffield was satisfying, he continued, it will mean nothing if he can’t duplicate the performance at the O2 Arena the following week.
“It won’t put doubts in his mind because he’ll think the same way I do,” stated Smith. “Next week is what counts. First to ten, what is it? Luke won’t be considering a defeat there.”
Following his quarterfinal victory over Aspinall, who was also vying for a play-off spot but needed to defeat Bully Boy to achieve it, Smith appeared overcome.
“I am crying more than I did when I won the Worlds,” he stated. “I was outscoring him when I was playing Nathan there. I knew that hitting the 136 and then the 132 would have hurt him even though I wasn’t playing well at all.
“I felt something like that. “Kick on now” made me want to do cartwheels, backflips, and other crazy things, but since Nathan was there, I had to be cool and apologise to him. That was very difficult, and I do feel bad for him because I want him there too.”
