Huddersfield’s Scott Waites today picked up his second Lakeside World Championship with an emphatic 7-1 win over Jeff Smith.  Waites becomes only the sixth Englishman (alongside Ted Hankey, Martin Adams, John Lowe, Eric Bristow, and Phil Taylor) to lift the title on more than one occasion.

The Yorkshireman took control right from the start as Smith struggled to find the devastating consistency he had shown earlier in the week.  Several times the man from New Brunswick got himself into a good position, but would invariably let Waites back in.  As early as the first set, Smith forged a 2-1 lead against the darts, only for Waites to take the set.

Down 3-0, Smith was looking good at 2-1 in the fourth, but legs of 13 and 15 (with back-to-back shots of 174 and 180) increased his opponent’s lead.  It’s not that Smith was being totally outplayed or anything, but he just couldn’t get his foot in the door.  After missing doubles – which cost him the fifth – the Canadian finally got on the board with a crisp 3-0 win in the sixth.  Even better, the set was climaxed with a stunning 161 checkout!

When Smith quickly grabbed the first two legs of the second – against the darts – it looked like the game could be changing, but four darts at a double for another 3-0 allowed Waites back in.  The four-set deficit soon became a five-set deficit.  The eighth set saw Smith again go ahead 2-1, and when he posted a 180 to leave 49 in the fourth leg, things looked very promising.  Very promising, however, until Waites walked to the oche and coolly checked out from 156!  One more leg, and it was “game over”.

Another superb display from Waites earned him a well-deserved win, but Jeff Smith should be extremely proud of his efforts this week.  Not just going one better than his semi-final finish of 2015, but the manner in which he achieved his successes; that victory against Richard Veenstra will certainly linger in the memory…

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