Key events
Michael Smith will throw first. Game on!
It sounds like Michael Smith is the crowd’s favourite tonight, for the first leg at least.
And now it’s time for Seven Nation Army, aka Michael van Gerwen. He bounces onto the oche and greets Smith with a quiet warmth. You suspect an in-form Van Gerwen holds many opponents in contempt; Michael Smith is not one of them.
“Moment of the tournament has to be Dirk van Duijvenbode’s win over Ross Smith, a right old tear up,” says Gregory Phillips. “DVD is so fun to watch, even though MVG was always going to obliterate him.
“Smith is the only one who can score heavily enough across multiple sets to have the slightest chance of staying with MVG, but if he loses the first two sets, he’s toast.”
They just pencil in Ross Smith v Dirk for the last 16 every year.
The players are ready. First up to the oche is Michael Smith, smiling a little nervously as he strolls on to the sound of Shut Up and Dance With Me.
The Sky pundits – Wayne Mar-dell, Mark Webster and John Part – have all predicted MvG to win either 7-3 or 7-4. I’m predicting nothing, except that they will be a series of exquisitely tense fifth legs.
Michael van Gerwen’s route to the final
Michael Smith’s route to the final
“At least we got the right final,” says J.R. in Illinois. “It doesn’t completely make up for an underwhelming tournament but hopefully it’ll be a barn burner. Also, if you needed another reason why that 180 comparison is meaningless, Smith has played 29 more legs than MVG so Smith is averaging a 180 in 34.6% of his legs and MVG is averaging a 180 in 33.7%.
“Hard to argue with Mensur’s 161 as best moment of the tournament. I’d put David Cameron’s insane comeback against Richie Edhouse as the underrated match of the tournament. Worst moment of the tournament was when Dimitri Van den Bergh grabbed the mic from Michael Bridge. Ugh. Not a Dimi fan.”
Yes, overall it hasn’t been the greatest worlds, certainly nowhere near as good as last year’s. The last 16 was terrific but there haven’t been enough high-class and/or dramatic games since then.
That said, there have been great moments and stories – Mensur’s 161, Gerwyn Price’s ear defenders (am I the only person who hadn’t heard that phrase until this week?), Jose de Sousa’s comebacks, Gabriel Clemens, Scott Wiliams, Jim Williams. And there is a different kind of pleasure in watching an all-time great reassert himself as Van Gerwen has done, and seeing a natural talent like Smith learn the art of winning ugly. Whoever wins, it’ll be a brilliant story.
What’s your favourite moment of the tournament?
Mine has to be Mensur’s 161, a laughably brilliant finish made even funnier by the infectiously giddy commentary of Wayne Mardle and John Part. It’s instant serotonin.
On-the-nose pre-match music
Tournament stats
Van Gerwen is ahead, but it’s interesting that Smith has still scored more 180s. I suppose MvG’s tally should really include 171-177s given how often he switches.
Tale of the Tape 📏
🏴 Michael Smith vs Michael van Gerwen 🇳🇱
Here’s the key stats of our two finalists ahead of tonight’s final. 🏆 pic.twitter.com/FdoaRJ1HEC
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) January 3, 2023
Last night’s action
Preamble
Predictable doesn’t have to mean boring. Before the World Championship, the most fancied final – by some distance – was this meeting of the two Michaels. It was also among the most mouthwatering: two big scorers who play at dizzying speed, and who, for very different reasons, are aching to get their clammy palms on the Sid Waddell Trophy.
That’s a slightly odd thing to say about Van Gerwen, given he has already won it three times, most recently when beating Smith 7-3 in 2019. But Van Gerwen was slowly on his way down from the astonishing peak of 2016, and his surprise defeat to Peter Wright in the following year’s final was followed by a bewildering, at times shocking loss of form. His last two appearances at the worlds were disastrous: he was humiliated 5-0 by Dave Chisnall in 2020 – “I played crap” was his succinct post-match analysis – and had to withdraw during last year’s tournament when he caught Covid.
For two years he had to cope with the unique torment that occurs when a serial winner stops winning, but he slowly rediscovered himself during 2022. A cathartic Premier League victory was followed by wins at the Matchplay, the Grand Prix and the Players Championship Finals.
At this worlds he has played preposterously well, almost on a par with his performance in the 2016-17 tournament – and that was the greatest darts ever played. In the last fortnight he has dropped only three sets, and the aura that faded away in the aftermath of that 2017 victory has returned big-time.
But if anyone can live with Van Gerwen’s savage scoring, and put him under maximum pressure on the doubles, it’s Smith. He hasn’t been at his best in this tournament, and could easily have lost to Martin Schindler or Stephen Bunting. But in a way that represents progress.
For years, the concepts of ‘Michael Smith’ and ‘winning ugly’ were mutually exclusive. He infamously lost eight major finals in a row, including two at the worlds, before finally winning his first at the Grand Slam in November. Smith has started winning games that he should have lost, rather than the other way round, including Schindler at the worlds and Joe Cullen in an immense quarter-final at the Grand Slam.
Not even Van Gerwen hits 180s with the same frequency or effortless elegance as Smith, and that beautifully repeatable throw – plus the Tigger that lurks beneath his sometimes diffident exterior – has enabled him to keep bouncing back from crushing disappointments. He will be world champion one day. “If I did win it,” he said after last night’s semi-final victory over Gabriel Clemens, “I’d feel sorry for my liver.”
When Smith does become world champion, someone will be able to write a helluva book about his journey story in the competition. There’s the astounding win over Phil Taylor in 2013-14, when Smith was a 14-1 outsider in a two-horse race; the quarter-final collapse against Barney two years later; the head-punching defeat in a marvellous game against the eventual winner Rob Cross in 2017-18; the desperate defeats to Luke Woodhouse and Jason Lowe. And there’s last year’s final, when Peter Wright went into overdrive to shatter the sense of destiny that Smith had built up during epic wins over Jonny Clayton and Gerwyn Price.
There is huge respect between these two, game recognising game and all that, and last night Van Gerwen sidled up to Smith in the practice room and told him that they owed it to the public to ensure they met in the final. They have both been very clear throughout the tournament that want to beat the best. Smith also wants revenge for 2019, when Van Gerwen taught him a lesson in hitting clutch doubles. Both players are better now than they were then, Smith in particular, so this could – could – be a classic.
As if the match wasn’t exciting enough, the winner will replace Price as world No1: Van Gerwen for the first time since the final two years ago; Smith for the first time in his life.