Canada’s Jeff Smith to face high-profile darts foe in Fallon Sherrock

Canadian Jeff (The Silencer) Smith will face Fallon Sherrock in a high-profile first-round matchup Friday at the 300,000-pound ($505,635) Bwin World Series of Darts Finals.

The 24-player event, which runs next Friday through Sunday, will be the PDC’s first to be staged in front of a live crowd at the Salzburgarena in Salzburg, Austria.

Sherrock made history last December as the first woman to win a game at the PDC (Professional Darts Corporation) World Championship.

Smith, a 44-year-old from Hampton, N.B., won his way back onto the Professional Darts Corporation circuit in mid-January at the PDC Qualifying School in Wigan, England.

In February, he made it to the final in his first event before losing 8-4 to former world champion Gary (Flying Scotsman) Anderson at the Players Championship One in Barnsley, England.

In July, Smith reached the semifinals of the PDC Summer Series, losing to eventual winner Michael van Gerwen, the world No. 1.

With the world’s top eight players seeded through to the second round, Friday’s first-round action features 12 invited players from around the world alongside four qualifiers.

The Smith-Sherrock winner will face eighth-seeded James (The Machine) Wade, the 2018 World Series of Darts Finals champion, in the second round.

Top-seeded van Gerwen has won four of the previous five editions of the World Series of Darts Finals since the event was introduced in 2015, with Wade interrupting that run of success in 2018.

The winner collects 70,00 pounds ($117,980).

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2020.