SWINDON pro Dennis Smith believes he is finding the form which once made him the world number five following a superb weekend at the Players Championship.
After qualifying for the Austrian Darts Open on Friday night, Smith bounced back from a first round defeat to eventual winner Robert Thornton on Saturday to surge to the semi-final of the second event on Sunday.
Smith beat former world champion John Part as well as Kevin McDine and Ted Hankey on his way to the last four in Wigan, before eventually falling to the sport’s form player Michael van Gerwen.
The Swindon player had a chance to take the red hot Dutchman to a deciding leg but let his opportunity slip away, but believes he is close to the standards which once ensured he was the fifth best player in the world.
“It’s been fantastic because I have been putting the hours in and it is nice to be getting the form back,” he said.
“I am playing like I did when I was world number five and I am finding all that consistency again because I am really enjoyed my darts and I want to play.
“It’s a great feeling, and I hope it can keep getting better and better.
“I have always had it there but I have struggled to find the consistency, and being able to play the game full-time at the moment means I am able to put the hours in and get the rewards, and that is great.”
Smith admitted things could have been very different had he not come out with a positive attitude following his first round defeat on Saturday, but still rues not taking his chance to push van Gerwen all the way.
“I lost to the winner of the first event on the Saturday (Thornton), although I played pretty well, but I was so pleased with the way I came back on the Sunday and I was over the moon with my darts,” he said.
“When you go back to the hotel room after losing in the first round you have a quiet night where you ponder all that went on and try and put things right, and I went in on Sunday with a positive attitude where everything went right. It doesn’t always work like that.
“Michael is a great player and he has proven himself worthy of being the world number two, but I had him under the cosh when he pulled it back to 4-4.
“He took 114 out in two legs in a row to go 5-4 up, then I had three darts at double 18 to make it 5-5 with my throw in the last leg, but he took it.
“Even though I was lost I was quite pleaded with it.”
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