1 week ago
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MICHAEL SMITH is preparing for his bid for another world crown by putting the finishing touches to his stunning new games room.
Bully Boy, who won the World Darts Championship in 2023 in one of the most epic finals ever against Michael van Gerwen, will have his eyes on the top prize once again this year.
PA
@Michael180Smith
@Michael180Smith
@Michael180SmithAnd the World No2 has taken extraordinary measures to try to get psyched up for the Alexandra Palace tournament later this month.
Taking to social media, the 34-year-old showed off an epic man cave.
The room, shrouded in darkness except for a large glass door and windows on the right side, sported a large flat-screen television at the far end equipped with speakers.
As the camera panned left, it revealed the wall to be covered in stunning wallpaper which showed off Smith kissing the Sid Waddell Trophy for winning at Ally Pally.
It is also featured a young lad playing rugby league in the kit of his beloved St Helens, although it isn’t clear who it is.
One end of the wallpaper showed a darts board with his score against Mighty Mike in the final, while the other showed off a bull in a reference to his nickname.
As the camera continued to pan left it showed off a striking red and yellow coloured LED lit bar area.
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Smith captioned his post: “Games room is coming along great. Just last few touch ups then put the board up.”
Reacting to the clip, one fan said: “Is that a TV or have you raided the local cinema?” To which Smith responded: “TV hahhaa. The other is 43 inch aswell and it’s tiny there hahaha.”
A second said: “Looks class that.”
A third added: “That twice the size of my living room lol. You’re going to be world champ again this year….”
Another said: “Having your winning double for the worlds on your wall is kinda cold.”
And after one fan teased that it looked like a “lappie”, or strip club, Smith joked: “I’ll put up a pole if you want to dance around it.”
The World Championship officially begins on December 15, with Smith playing his first match on December 19 against the winner of Kevin Doets and Noa-Lynn van Leuven.
The winner of the competition will take home £500,000.
Last year Luke Humphries beat Luke Littler in the final, while Smith fell to a straight legs fourth round exit against Chris Dobey.
@Michael180Smith
@Michael180Smith
@Michael180Smith
List of all-time Darts World Champions
BELOW is a list of Darts world champions by year.
The list does not include winners from the pre-Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) era or BDO world champions.
That means Raymond van Barneveld, for example, is only listed once – Barney also won four BDO titles – and none of Eric Bristow’s five BDO titles are included.
- 1994 – Dennis Priestley
- 1995 – Phil Taylor
- 1996 – Phil Taylor (2)
- 1997 – Phil Taylor (3)
- 1998 – Phil Taylor (4)
- 1999 – Phil Taylor (5)
- 2000 – Phil Taylor (6)
- 2001 – Phil Taylor (7)
- 2002 – Phil Taylor (8)
- 2003 – John Part
- 2004 – Phil Taylor (9)
- 2005 – Phil Taylor (10)
- 2006 – Phil Taylor (11)
- 2007 – Raymond van Barneveld
- 2008 – John Part (2)
- 2009 – Phil Taylor (12)
- 2010 – Phil Taylor (13)
- 2011 – Adrian Lewis
- 2012 – Adrian Lewis (2)
- 2013 – Phil Taylor (14)
- 2014 – Michael van Gerwen
- 2015 – Gary Anderson
- 2016 – Gary Anderson (2)
- 2017 – Michael van Gerwen (2)
- 2018 – Rob Cross
- 2019 – Michael van Gerwen (3)
- 2020 – Peter Wright
- 2021 – Gerwyn Price
- 2022 – Peter Wright (2)
- 2023 – Michael Smith
- 2024 – Luke Humphries
Most World Titles
- 14 – Phil Taylor
- 3 – Michael van Gerwen
- 2 – John Part, Adrian Lewis, Gary Anderson, Peter Wright
- 1 – Dennis Priestley, Raymond van Barneveld, Rob Cross, Gerwyn Price, Michael Smith, Luke Humphries
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