Adam Smith-Neale
| Adam Smith-Neale | |
|---|---|
| Personal information | |
| Nickname | Big Dog |
| Born |
29 October 1993 England |
| Darts information | |
| Playing darts since | 2010 |
| Darts | Red Dragon |
| Laterality | Right-handed |
| Walk-on music | Scooby Doo Theme Song |
| Organisation (see split in darts) | |
| BDO | 2018- |
| PDC | 2010-2018 |
| Current world ranking | (BDO) 87 |
| BDO majors - best performances | |
| World Ch'ship | Preliminary Round: 2019 |
| World Masters | Winner (1): 2018 |
| PDC premier events - best performances | |
| Grand Slam | Group Stage: 2018 |
| UK Open | Last 96: 2012 |
Adam Smith-Neale (born October 29th, 1993) is an English darts player, currently playing in both the British Darts Organisation and Professional Darts Corporation Challenge tour events.
Darts career
Early career
Smith-Neale started playing in the Professional Darts Corporation at the age of 17 in 2011 when he entered the World Youth Championships and lost in the last 64 to Lewis Venes[1]. The following January Smith-Neale entered Q School and after making the last 16 all 4 days he was given a 2 year tour card to play the Pro tour[2]. Through those 2 years Smith-Neale split his time between playing on the main tour and on the Youth tour, on the main tour he failed to make an impact and only made one TV major which was the 2012 UK Open where he made the last 96. On the Youth tour however Smith-Neale had much more success where he managed to finish the 2011 season 9th in the Rankings which qualified him for the 2012 PDC World Youth Championship where he again went out at the last 64 stage.
In 2012 Smith-Neale won his first PDC tournament when he won Event 7 of the Youth tour [3] and finished the season in 14th qualifying for the 2013 PDC World Youth Championship where he went out in the first round.
After not making the top 64 of the PDC order of Merit by the end of 2012 Smith-Neale lost his tour card and went to Qschool again. He failed to gain a tour card in 2013,14,15,17 but continued to play on the Challenge tour and Youth tour during that time.
2018 Season
After failing to get a tour card at the start of the 2018 season Smith-Neale started to play in more BDO events which lead him to qualify for the BDO World Masters. Not being a seed meant that he had to start the tournament at the first round but Smith-Neale won through the first 5 rounds on the floor to reach the stage finals. He defeated Daniel Day 3-0 in the last 32, Mark McGeeney 3-2 in Last 16, Wayne Warren 4-1 in the last 8, Jim Williams 5-3 in the Semi Final and BDO Number 1 Glen Durrant 6-4 in the final to win the £20,000 Prize. Winning the world Masters also meant Smith-Neale has qualified for the 2019 BDO World Championship.