Peter Wright reached the final of the William Hill World Darts Champinship wanting to bite his second world title before a delivered Alexandra Palace and ‘Snakebite’, as it is known, did not fail. The Scotsman is the 2022 world champion in Darts after beating Michael Smith 7-5 in a final in which there was everything and in which the Englishman put the second classified in the world rankings in a lot of trouble.
For this great battle on one side came the Scotsman Peter Wright, 51, 2020 world darts champion and famous for his multi-colored hairstyles that his wife Jo gives him to match the outfit he wears for every match, in addition to his tattoo of a snake on his head and that receives the nickname of “Snakebite”, snake bite for your favorite drink. On the other Michael Smith, a 31-year-old Englishman, known as “Bully Boy” (bully), and who came into the game after his vibrant match with Jonny Clayton, after dethroning reigning champion Gerwyn Price and overtaking compatriot James Wade for a place in the final.
Wright rules after a nervous start
After Ally Pally played “Don’t Stop The Party” by Pitbull with the entrance of Wright and “Shut Up and Dance” by Walk The Moon to receive Smith, the final started with a lot of nerves in the first legs where Smith and Wright had numerous problems to close (Smith had to shoot up to 28 times to close the second leg). However, in these situations Wright made use of his experience and, after missing the double 16, he did so with the double 8 to take the first set 3-1. In the second set Wright took the lead after closing the 148 points of the leg with two triples 20 and a double 14. An advantage that Wright did not waste to close the 124 points of the fourth leg with a 20, a triple 18 and a bull and, in this way, win the set 3-1 and stand with two sets to zero in favor.
Smith displayed his nickname of ‘Bully Boy’ (bully) and reacted in the third set, where based on 180’s (he arrived with 59 180’s before the final), he managed to get ahead with a spectacular shot in which he closed the 167 points with a triple 20, a triple 19 and bull. The magic of the 180 did that Smith also did not fail in the fourth leg, where he closed with a double 13 to close the gap on the scoreboard and win the set to make it 2-1. Smith showed his improvement in this fourth set, placing himself with two legs to one in favor while the nerves played a trick on Peter Wright, who failed to close his 46 points with the double 16 and the double 8 with two set darts While Smith did have more aim to close the double 10 at the first and put it 2-2 in sets on the scoreboard.
In the fifth set ‘Snakebite’ Wright took advantage after winning the second leg with a double 9 although Smith managed to close the gap with a throw of 11 darts thanks in part to his hit with the triple 20, smashing the historic mark of 71 180’s that Gary Anderson achieved in the 2017 tournament. However, this did not help Smith, who did not manage to close the set with 106 points in the decisive leg while Wright did not fail to close the 25 with the 9 and a double 8 to get 3-2 in favor. That did not make ‘Bully Boy’ lose face to the game and, in the sixth set, he managed to win by three legs to one after closing with a double 8 to put the 3-3 on the set count.
The rebellion of Michael Smith
Smith’s streak continued in the seventh set, where The Englishman did not give Wright any option to win by three legs to zero after closing the 93 points of the third leg with a triple 19 and a double 18 and making Ally Pally explode with joy seeing ‘Bully Boy’ ahead on the match scoreboard for the first time. However, Wright did not give in and after putting two legs to zero in favor after hitting the double 4, he did not fail either in the fourth leg of this sleeve to close with a triple 12, an 18 and double nine to equalize the match at four sets each.
In the ninth set, the equality that marked a large part of the game continued to prevail. Although Wright managed to get ahead by two legs to one, Smith managed to balance the scales by not missing the double 10. That unhinged Wright, who had up to 6 darts to win the set but did not hit with double 8, double 4, double 2 and double 1 while ‘Bully Boy’ did hit double 13 on the third attempt to return to get ahead on the scoreboard by 5-4. With Wright affected by these errors, Smith continued his winning momentum and got to put in the tenth set with two legs to zero although Wright managed to stop the partial of four consecutive legs of ‘Bully Boy’. A comeback that Wright managed to culminate in the decisive leg with 180’s and close the 84 points with a 25, a 19 and a double 20 to rebalance the contest to 5 sets against a fully fired Ally Pally.
Peter Wright’s Ultimate Bite
The eleventh set came and in it Peter Wright once again showed off his seniority, taking the set 3-0 after Smith missed the bull and Wright closed with a double 18. In the twelfth set ‘Snakebite’ took the first leg with a 15, a 16 and a bull and also took the second after closing with a double 9 on the first attempt. With a Smith who tried to react but was not as precise as in previous manga, Wright had a clear path to the title and in the fourth leg he scored 100 points to focus on giving a double 16 that closed the first to get his second World Darts title after lifting the Sid Waddell trophy in 2020 and thus stop a very brave Michael Smith who presented a more than worthy battle but could not stop Peter Wright’s party to the sound of Pitbull.
Coronavirus, Borland and Price’s 9 darts and records and matches for history
The coronavirus has also affected the William Hill World Darts Championship to some extent, as Vincent Van der Voort, Dave Chisnall and three-time world champion Michael Van Gerwen They could not play their third round matches after having tested positive in the pre-match tests. The coronavirus also prevented a Spanish representative from being in the tournament, since Juan Francisco Rodríguez, who had achieved qualification, was unable to participate by testing positive for COVID-19 before the start of the championship.
Despite these cases, the dedicated fans of Ally Pally have been able to enjoy in this World Cup moments that are already part of the history of this sport like William Borland’s spectacular nine-dart shot to beat Bradley Brooks in the deciding set, the return of world champion Raymond Van Barneveld, the mark of 30 million points achieved in the PDC World Cups, the million darts thrown in the history of the championship; Rob Cross’s great victory in the third round, firefighter Alan Soutar’s surprise against one of the great favorites like José De Sousa, the great game that Michael Smith and Jonny Clayton gave us in the fourth round, the throw of nine darts of the until today champion Gerwyn Price that were not worth to defeat Michael Smith in the quarterfinals or the spectacular semifinal starring Peter Wright and Gary Anderson, who added a whopping 39 180’s between the two. Fans and Ally Pally are already counting down to re-vibrate the greatest darts show in 2023. Meanwhile, as Peter Wright enters his games underlines, “Don’t stop the party!”