Announcements

ST HELENS darter Michael Smith made it back-to-back ProTour titles as he clinched victory on Day Two of the 2020 PDC Winter Series, beating Jose De Sousa 8-7 in a climactic final.

It was a day of truly brilliant darts at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry, which saw huge averages posted and two nine-darters thrown by Andy Hamilton and Rowby-John Rodriguez.

Having waited two years to break his barren run for a title, Smith backed up his superb performances on Day One with some truly scintillating stuff in Wednesday's Players Championship.

However, in the final he looked to be falling short at the final hurdle as De Sousa - chasing his fourth PDC title - raced into a 4-1 lead with legs of 11, 13 and 11 darts.

Smith did superbly to resist the Portuguese star, and quickly levelled back to 4-4 as he cut the difference in the averages.

There was then little to separate the two, and Smith looked destined to take the title as he took a 7-6 lead, only for De Sousa to break throw and level at 7-7, giving him the darts for the title.

Smith remained strong, however, and a crucial 180 in the deciding leg gave him the advantage as he went to take out 25 on double ten for the title.

It was another memorable day for the 30-year-old, which started with a comfortable 6-3 win over Derk Telnekes.

The World Cup finalist then posted a huge 106.1 average as he beat Matthew Dennant 6-1, before going even better with a 106.8 average against Damon Heta.

Arguably his worst performance of the day came in a 6-2 win over Dirk van Duijvenbode in the last 16, but this improved massively in the next round against Gabriel Clemens.

The German had been imperious up until this stage, averaging a staggering 109 for the day and twice posting a 112 average, but was no match for Smith - who raised his own average to 109 in a dominant 6-1 victory to reach the final four.

And there, he quickly dealt with experienced Dutchman Vincent Van der Voort 7-3 to reach the final.

Action in the PDC Winter Series continues on Thursday with Day Three in Coventry, with Smith looking to make it a hat-trick of titles.