Ross Smith (darts player)

Ross Smith
Smith at the 2024 World Grand Prix
Personal information
Nickname	"Smudger"
Born	(1989-01-12) 12 January 1989 Dover, Kent, England
Home town	Deal, Kent, England
Darts information
Playing darts since	2003
Darts	22g Unicorn
Laterality	Right-handed
Walk-on music	"Red Light Spells Danger" by Billy Ocean
Organisation (see split in darts)
BDO	2007–2011
PDC	2005–2006, 2012–2016, 2018– (Tour Card: 2012–2016, 2018–)
Current world ranking	19 2 (24 November 2024)
WDF major events – best performances
World Ch'ship	Quarter Final: 2011
World Masters	Last 40: 2011
PDC premier events – best performances
World Ch'ship	Last 32: 2022, 2023, 2024
World Matchplay	Quarter Final: 2024
World Grand Prix	Last 16: 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
UK Open	Quarter Final: 2019
Grand Slam	Last 16: 2022, 2024
European Ch'ship	Winner (1): 2022
PC Finals	Semi Final: 2024
Masters	Last 16: 2023
World Series Finals	Last 24: 2018
Other tournament wins
Players Championships Players Championship (BAR) 2023 (x2) Players Championship (COV) 2021 Players Championship (MK) 2024 PDC Challenge Tour PDC Challenge Tour 2013 (x4)

Ross Smith (born 12 January 1989) is an English professional darts player who plays in events of the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). He has won 5 ranking PDC titles, including the 2022 European Championship.

Career

Smith began playing in Professional Darts Corporation events in 2005 and made his debut in the Vauxhall Spring Open, reaching the last 16. Smith then reached the final of the WDF Europe Youth Cup, losing to Dutchman Johnny Nijs. Smith had little success afterwards on the PDC circuit and switched to the BDO in 2007. He reached the last 16 of the 2008 British Classic and the 2008 Czech Open.

Smith qualified for the 2009 BDO World Darts Championship, winning one of five places in the qualifiers in Bridlington. He gained victories over Stuart Kellet, Kevin Simm and Henny van der Ster before beating Scotland's Don Haughton to qualify. He faced Scott Waites in the first round, losing 3–0.

In the 2011 BDO World Darts Championship, he beat Tony O'Shea 3–1 in the first round and Willy van de Wiel 4–1 in the second round, before losing to eventual champion Martin Adams 1–5 in the quarter finals. It was announced at the end of the 2012 BDO World Championship that Ross would be one of many players to compete in the rival PDC's 'Q School' the following season. He earned a tour card through the qualifiers Order of Merit. His best result of 2012 came just one week later as he reached the quarter-finals of the second Players Championship and lost 3–6 to Justin Pipe. Smith qualified for three of the five new European Tour events, but lost in the first round on each occasion. He came very close to defeating world number 5 Simon Whitlock in the third event, the European Darts Open as he led 5–2, but went on to lose 5–6.

Smith headed into 2013 ranked world number 79, and reached his first semi-final on the PDC tour in April at the seventh UK Open Qualifier, where he lost 6–3 to John Part. At the UK Open itself, he fought back from 7–4 down in the third round against Jelle Klaasen to level at 7–7, before being edged out 9–7. He threw a nine-dart finish in the second round of the Gibraltar Darts Trophy against Adrian Lewis, but lost 5–6; this remained the last nine-dart finish achieved on the PDC European Tour until June 2018. Smith won four events on the PDC Challenge Tour during 2013 to top the Order of Merit which has earned him a place in the Grand Slam of Darts and the 2014 World Championship and also a two year PDC tour card which includes all of his 2014 entry fees. In the Grand Slam he lost each of his three games to Simon Whitlock, Wes Newton and Mark Webster to finish bottom of Group G. He played Whitlock in the first round of the World Championship and was beaten 3–0 in sets.

He began 2014 at 54th place in the rankings meaning he rose 25 positions during the previous year. He lost 9–5 in the third round of the UK Open to Kim Huybrechts. Smith's only quarter-final showing of the year came at the 19th Players Championship where he lost 6–3 to Gerwyn Price. He missed out on qualifying for the 2015 World Championship by just £500 on the Pro Tour Order of Merit.

Smith saw off Kevin Thomas at the German Darts Championship and came from 4–1 behind against Peter Wright in the second round to force a deciding leg in which he missed one match dart to lose 6–5. 2015 proved to be a difficult year for Smith as he could only record one more last 32 finish out of the events he played in. Smith explained that the birth of his child and starting a new job had left him with no time to practice. He fell to 74th on the Order of Merit meaning he needed to enter 2016 Q School. Smith hit a nine darter on the first day and on the final day eliminated seven players, concluding with a 5–4 victory over Mick McGowan to win a new two-year tour card and stated that his goal was to get in the top 40 in the rankings.

He failed to qualify for the 2016 UK Open and reached the last 32 of an event for the only time this year at the fourth Players Championship event by beating Peter Wright and Dennis Smith, before losing 6–2 Rowby-John Rodriguez. He reached the main draw of the Gibraltar Darts Trophy and Austrian Darts Open, but was eliminated in the first round of both. After 2017, during which he took a break from playing darts, he lost his PDC Tour card.

In 2018 he won his Tour card back and in 2019 he reached the world championship where he defeated Paul Lim in the first round, but lost to Daryl Gurney in the second round. He also qualified for the UK Open in 2019 where he reached the quarter finals after defeating Dawson Murschell, Yordi Meeuwisse, Alan Norris, Steve West and James Wade.

In the same year, he also qualified for 2019 European Championship and he defeated in the first round the first seed and the current world number one, Michael van Gerwen 5–6. In the second round he lost to Ricky Evans. For the first time since 2013, he also qualified for 2019 Grand Slam of Darts when he was successful in PDC Qualifying Event. He was unable to win any match in his group that also contained Michael van Gerwen, Adrian Lewis and Jim Williams. For the second time in a row, he also qualified for 2019 Players Championship Finals, but he was eliminated in the first round, losing to Brendan Dolan.

Smith qualified for 2020 PDC World Darts Championship as the 10th highest ranked player via Pro Tour Order of Merit. However, he lost 0–3 to the debutant Ciaran Teehan from Ireland. After the championship, Smith placed 48th in PDC Order of Merit, his highest year end ranking ever, and secured his Tour card for another season. He was seeded into the third round of 2020 UK Open, but lost in his first match against Jamie Lewis 5–6. Even though the European Tour was cut short due to COVID-19, he qualified for 2020 European Championship, but lost in the deciding leg to Michael Smith. Smith had his best run in 2020 Players Championship Finals, reaching the third round after wins over Kim Huybrechts and Nathan Aspinall, before losing to Damon Heta.

At the end of 2020, he qualified for his third world championship in a row, 2021 PDC World Darts Championship, as fourth highest ranked player from Pro Tour Order of Merit.

In October 2022, Smith reached his first televised major final, defeating Michael Smith 11–8 to win a first major title at the 2022 European Championship. During the group stage of the 2022 Grand Slam of Darts, Smith hit nine 180s in his victory over Michael van Gerwen, a record number for a group stage for the Grand Slam. Smith's year ended with a third round World Championship defeat to Dirk van Duijvenbode in a sudden death leg, having missed five match darts. The match featured 31 180s, a record for a best of 7 sets match, nineteen of which from Smith which equalled the individual record for a match of this format.

Smith won a second PDC ProTour title in March 2023 with victory at Players Championship 5, defeating Gary Anderson 8–6 in the final. The win took him into the Order of Merit's top 16 for the first time in his career. He won a second ProTour title of the year in October 2023 at Players Championship 28, ensuring his position as the third-most in form player in the world over the previous 200 legs played ahead of his European Championship title defence in Germany.

At the 2024 European Darts Grand Prix, Smith survived ten match darts across the tournament as he reached a first European Tour final, where he lost 8–6 to Gary Anderson. He won a first title of the year at PC13. In his first round match at the 2024 World Grand Prix, Smith averaged 101.79 as he defeated Gian van Veen 2–0, the ninth highest average in the history of the competition.

World Championship results

BDO

• 2009: First round (lost to Scott Waites 0–3)
• 2011: Quarter-finals (lost to Martin Adams 1–5)

PDC

• 2014: First round (lost to Simon Whitlock 0–3)
• 2019: Second round (lost to Daryl Gurney 0–3)
• 2020: First round (lost to Ciaran Teehan 0–3)
• 2021: Second round (lost to José de Sousa 1–3)
• 2022: Third round (lost to Dirk van Duijvenbode 3–4)
• 2023: Third round (lost to Dirk van Duijvenbode 3–4)
• 2024: Third round (lost to Chris Dobey 2–4)

Performance timeline

BDO

Tournament	2009	2010	2011	2012
BDO World Championship	1R	DNQ	QF	DNQ
Winmau World Masters	3R	PR	4R	DNP

PDC

Tournament	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
PDC World Championship	DNQ		1R	Did not qualify				2R	1R	2R	3R	3R	3R
UK Open	Prel.	3R	3R	Did not qualify				QF	3R	3R	3R	4R	5R
World Matchplay	Did not qualify									1R	DNQ	1R	QF
World Grand Prix	Did not qualify									2R	2R	2R	2R
European Championship	Did not qualify							2R	1R	DNQ	W	1R	1R
Grand Slam of Darts	DNQ	RR	Did not qualify					RR	DNQ		2R	DNQ	2R
Players Championship Finals	Did not qualify						1R	1R	3R	2R	2R	2R	SF
Non-ranked televised events
Masters	Did not qualify											2R	1R
World Series of Darts Finals	Not held			Did not qualify			1R	DNQ					1R
Career statistics
Year-end ranking	92	54	51	83	121	160	62	48	41	33	17	17

PDC European Tour

Season	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13
2012	ADO 1R	GDC DNQ	EDO 1R	GDM DNQ	DDM 1R
2013	UKM 1R	EDT 2R	EDO DNQ	ADO 3R	GDT 2R	GDC DNQ	GDM 1R	DDM 2R
2014	GDC DNQ	DDM DNQ	GDM 1R	ADO DNQ	GDT DNQ	EDO DNQ	EDG DNQ	EDT 2R
2015	GDC 2R	GDT DNQ	GDM DNQ	DDM DNQ	IDO DNQ	EDO DNQ	EDT DNQ	EDM DNQ	EDG DNP
2016	DDM DNQ	GDM DNQ	GDT 1R	EDM DNQ	ADO 1R	EDO DNQ	IDO DNQ	EDT DNQ	EDG DNP	GDC DNP
2017	Did not play
2018	EDO DNQ	GDG DNQ	GDO DNQ	ADO DNQ	EDG DNQ	DDM DNQ	GDT 2R	DDO DNP	EDM DNQ	GDC 1R	DDC 3R	IDO 2R	EDT DNQ
2019	EDO 3R	GDC DNQ	GDG 3R	GDO DNQ	ADO 1R	EDG 2R	DDM 1R	DDO DNQ	CDO DNQ	ADC 1R	EDM 1R	IDO DNQ	GDT DNQ
2020	BDC DNQ	GDC DNQ	EDG DNQ	IDO QF
2021	HDT 2R	GDT DNQ
2022	IDO DNQ	GDC DNQ	GDG DNQ	ADO 2R	EDO DNQ	CDO QF	EDG DNQ	DDC 2R	EDM DNQ	HDT DNQ	GDO QF	BDO 2R	GDT DNQ
2023	BSD DNQ	EDO 3R	IDO 2R	GDG 2R	ADO DNQ	DDC 2R	BDO 1R	CDO 2R	EDG SF	EDM 2R	GDO 2R	HDT 2R	GDC 3R
2024	BDO 2R	GDG 3R	IDO QF	EDG F	ADO SF	BSD 3R	DDC 2R	EDO F	GDC 2R	FDT 3R	HDT SF	SDT 3R	CDO 2R

PDC Players Championships

Season	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30
2012	ALI 1R	ALI QF	REA 1R	REA 2R	CRA DNP	CRA DNP	BIR 3R	BIR 2R	CRA 1R	CRA 1R	BAR 1R	BAR 2R	DUB 1R	DUB DNP	KIL 1R	KIL 1R	CRA 1R	CRA 2R	BAR 3R	BAR 1R
2013	WIG 2R	WIG 1R	WIG 2R	WIG 1R	CRA 2R	CRA 2R	BAR 3R	BAR 1R	DUB 2R	DUB 1R	KIL PR	KIL 2R	WIG 1R	WIG 2R	BAR 3R	BAR 1R
2014	BAR 1R	BAR 1R	CRA 1R	CRA 2R	WIG 3R	WIG 2R	WIG 2R	WIG 3R	CRA 1R	CRA 1R	COV 1R	COV 2R	CRA 1R	CRA 1R	DUB 3R	DUB 2R	CRA 4R	CRA 1R	COV QF	COV 4R
2015	BAR 2R	BAR 1R	BAR 1R	BAR 1R	BAR 2R	COV 2R	COV 2R	COV 1R	CRA 2R	CRA 3R	BAR 2R	BAR 1R	WIG 1R	WIG 1R	BAR DNP	BAR DNP	DUB 1R	DUB 1R	COV 1R	COV 2R
2016	BAR 2R	BAR 2R	BAR 2R	BAR 3R	BAR 1R	BAR 1R	BAR 1R	COV 1R	COV 1R	BAR 1R	BAR 1R	BAR DNP	BAR DNP	BAR DNP	BAR DNP	BAR DNP	DUB DNP	DUB DNP	BAR DNP	BAR 2R
2017	BAR DNP	BAR DNP	BAR DNP	BAR DNP	MIL DNP	MIL DNP	BAR DNP	BAR DNP	WIG 1R	WIG DNP	MIL DNP	MIL DNP	WIG DNP	WIG DNP	BAR DNP	BAR DNP	BAR DNP	BAR DNP	DUB DNP	DUB DNP	BAR DNP	BAR DNP
2018	BAR 2R	BAR 2R	BAR 1R	BAR 2R	MIL 1R	MIL 1R	BAR 2R	BAR 1R	WIG 2R	WIG 2R	MIL 3R	MIL 1R	WIG 2R	WIG 3R	BAR 3R	BAR 1R	BAR 4R	BAR 1R	DUB 4R	DUB 1R	BAR 2R	BAR 2R
2019	WIG 1R	WIG 1R	WIG 2R	WIG 2R	BAR 4R	BAR 3R	WIG 4R	WIG 1R	BAR 4R	BAR 2R	BAR 2R	BAR 2R	BAR 3R	BAR 2R	BAR 1R	BAR 3R	WIG 2R	WIG 4R	BAR 2R	BAR 1R	HIL 1R	HIL 1R	BAR 2R	BAR 3R	BAR 1R	BAR QF	DUB 2R	DUB 1R	BAR 3R	BAR 1R
2020	BAR 4R	BAR QF	WIG 2R	WIG 3R	WIG 1R	WIG 1R	BAR 1R	BAR 1R	MIL 3R	MIL 1R	MIL 2R	MIL 1R	MIL 2R	NIE 2R	NIE 4R	NIE QF	NIE QF	NIE 1R	COV 2R	COV 3R	COV 4R	COV 2R	COV 1R
2021	BOL 2R	BOL 2R	BOL 2R	BOL 1R	MIL 1R	MIL 1R	MIL 1R	MIL 2R	NIE 4R	NIE F	NIE 2R	NIE 1R	MIL 1R	MIL 4R	MIL 1R	MIL 3R	COV 3R	COV 1R	COV W	COV 1R	BAR 3R	BAR 2R	BAR 2R	BAR 2R	BAR 3R	BAR 4R	BAR F	BAR 3R	BAR 3R	BAR 2R
2022	BAR 3R	BAR 1R	WIG 1R	WIG 1R	BAR 2R	BAR 1R	NIE 1R	NIE 1R	BAR 1R	BAR 4R	BAR 1R	BAR 1R	BAR 2R	WIG 4R	WIG 1R	NIE 2R	NIE 4R	BAR 2R	BAR 1R	BAR 2R	BAR 3R	BAR 1R	BAR 1R	BAR 4R	BAR 3R	BAR 1R	BAR 1R	BAR QF	BAR 1R	BAR 4R
2023	BAR 2R	BAR 2R	BAR 4R	BAR 1R	BAR W	BAR QF	HIL 2R	HIL QF	WIG 2R	WIG 1R	LEI 1R	LEI 1R	HIL 1R	HIL 4R	LEI 1R	LEI 1R	HIL 3R	HIL 1R	BAR QF	BAR 4R	BAR QF	BAR 2R	BAR 4R	BAR 1R	BAR 3R	BAR 2R	BAR 4R	BAR W	BAR 4R	BAR 4R
2024	WIG 3R	WIG 2R	LEI 3R	LEI 1R	HIL SF	HIL SF	LEI SF	LEI 2R	HIL 1R	HIL 2R	HIL 2R	HIL 2R	MIL W	MIL 2R	MIL 2R	MIL 4R	MIL SF	MIL QF	MIL 4R	WIG 1R	WIG 2R	LEI 1R	LEI 3R	WIG 4R	WIG 1R	WIG 1R	WIG DNP	WIG DNP	LEI 4R	LEI 1R

Performance Table Legend
W	Won the tournament	F	Finalist	SF	Semifinalist	QF	Quarterfinalist	#R RR Prel.	Lost in # round Round-robin Preliminary round	DQ	Disqualified
DNQ	Did not qualify	DNP	Did not participate	WD	Withdrew	NH	Tournament not held			NYF	Not yet founded

PDC major finals: 1 (1 title)

Outcome	No.	Year	Championship	Opponent in the final	Score	Ref.
Winner	1.	2022	European Championship	Michael Smith	11–8 (l)

External links

• Ross Smith player profile at Darts Orakel