SMITH’S ON CLOUD NINE
BULLY BOY Michael Smith crumpled to the floor after finally breaking one of sport’s longest-running curses – and cut his elbow as he did so.
World No.4 Smith (left) landed his first major TV title and lifted the Eric Bristow Trophy with a crushing 16-5 win against Nathan Aspinall in the Cazoo Grand Slam of Darts final. And as he celebrated glory at the ninth time of asking – after eight major final heartbreaks in a row – he warned: “Nobody can call me a bottler or bottle-job any more.”
Smith, 32, is £150,000 richer for his week’s work in Wolverhampton, and this could be the first pot of many. He grinned: “I’m used to giving the runner-up speech, and every time I turned up for a new tournament, people would ask me every time about the finals I’ve lost.
“Now they can ask me about the one I’ve won and nobody can take this away from me.”