{"id":4981,"date":"2022-10-30T22:47:56","date_gmt":"2022-10-30T22:47:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/?p=4981"},"modified":"2022-10-30T22:47:56","modified_gmt":"2022-10-30T22:47:56","slug":"ross-smith-stuns-michael-smith-to-win-cazoo-european-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/news\/ross-smith-stuns-michael-smith-to-win-cazoo-european-championship\/","title":{"rendered":"Ross Smith stuns Michael Smith to win Cazoo European Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ross Smith produced an outstanding display to defeat Michael Smith 11-8 in the 2022 Cazoo European Championship final, lifting his first televised title in Dortmund on Sunday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In his first TV final, Ross Smith produced a 101.32 average, hitting eight 180s and pinning 50 per cent of his double attempts in an imperious display.<\/p>\n

Michael Smith also averaged over 100 and hit eight 180s in a high-quality final, but was never able to wrestle the lead away from an unrelenting Ross Smith.<\/p>\n

Ross Smith, whose previous best run in a TV ranking event was a run to the quarter-finals of the 2019 UK Open,\u00a0began the event as a rank outsider but blew the field apart with a string of stunning performances.<\/p>\n

“I think I’m dreaming, I have to pinch myself,”<\/em>\u00a0said Ross Smith, who defeated Peter Wright and Chris Dobey in the quarter-finals and semi-finals respectively.<\/p>\n

“It hasn’t sunk in, it probably won’t do for weeks.\u00a0I’ve never even won a Euro Tour, never mind a TV tournament.<\/em><\/p>\n

“I kept telling myself ‘just play darts, don’t put yourself under any pressure and just throw’.<\/em><\/p>\n

“It’s a real privilege to play darts on stages like this, in front of crowds like this. I love this game.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Underdog heading into the final, Ross Smith enjoyed a dream start as he raced into a 3-0 lead, hitting checkouts of 133 and 121.<\/p>\n

Michael Smith fought back to level at 3-3 before Ross Smith regained the initiative at 4-3, a lead he never relinquished.<\/p>\n

Ross Smith took out 121 on the bullseye for a second time to make it 6-4, though he looked to have offered his opponent a way back into the contest when he missed three darts for an 8-4 lead, allowing Michael Smith to reduce the deficit to 7-5.<\/p>\n

Michael Smith somehow found his way through to a seemingly blocked double five bed with his last dart in hand to once again pull within a leg of Ross Smith at 8-7.<\/p>\n

However, it was to be Ross Smith’s night as the 33-year-old held his never, winning three of the next four legs to seal the biggest win of his life.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Michael Smith suffered heartbreak for a sixth time in a TV ranking final.<\/p>\n

The world number four produced memorable wins over Josh Rock, Luke Humphries and Dirk van Duijvenbode to reach the final but was once again left wondering what might have been.<\/p>\n

“Every time Ross was on a ton-plus finish he was pinning it,\u00a0fair play to him he did what he needed to do to win,”<\/em>\u00a0Michael Smith reflected.<\/p>\n

“My scoring wasn’t the best but I wasn’t too upset with myself at how I played.<\/em><\/p>\n

“It’s starting to become annoying [losing TV ranking finals] but I’ll get there eventually.<\/em><\/p>\n

“I’ve just got to keep going, keep believing and keep doing what I’m doing. Maybe I will win the next one, or the one after that. We’ll see.”<\/em><\/p>\n

2022 Cazoo European Championship
\n<\/b>Sunday October 30
\nAfternoon Session
\n<\/b>Quarter-Finals
\n<\/strong>Dirk van Duijvenbode 10-3 Danny Noppert
\nMichael Smith 10-7 Luke Humphries
\nChris Dobey 10-7 Dave Chisnall
\nRoss Smith 10-8 Peter Wright<\/p>\n

Evening Session
\n<\/b>Semi-Finals
\n<\/strong>Michael Smith 11-7 Dirk van Duijvenbode
\nRoss Smith 11-9\u00a0Chris Dobey<\/p>\n

Final
\n<\/strong>Ross Smith 11-8 Michael Smith<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ross Smith produced an outstanding display to defeat Michael Smith 11-8 in the 2022 Cazoo European Championship final, lifting his…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[109,124],"tags":[],"lang":"en","translations":{"de":4983,"en":4981},"pll_sync_post":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4981"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4981"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4988,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4981\/revisions\/4988"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdc.fw-web.space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}