Andy Smith (darts player)
Andrew Smith (born 22 June 1967) is an English former professional darts player. He used the nickname The Pie Man for his matches. His best performances came in the "floor" events (non-televised tournaments with many boards being used simultaneously), where he won six PDC Pro Tour titles. Career A former England international, Smith won the England, Welsh and Norway Opens in his early career, as well as qualifying for the British Darts Organisation version of the world championship on four occasions (losing in the first round each time), before switching from the BDO to the PDC. His wins in the Scottish and South-West Regional Finals for the 2005 UK Open saw him enter the televised finals as number one seed, and he later qualified for the Las Vegas Desert Classic. Smith narrowly missed out on an automatic place in the 2006 PDC World Championship after jumping to 33rd in the rankings, but came through the PDPA qualifiers to book his place at the Circus Tavern. He overcame Colin Monk and Ray Carver to reach the last 16, before losing out to Alan Warriner-Little. Smith did not win another Pro Tour title until October 2007, when he took the PDPA Scottish Players Championship in Irvine – beating James Wade with a 108 average in the final. He won a Players Championship in Dinslaken, Germany in June 2009, hitting a nine-dart finish in his quarter final before defeating Colin Lloyd to take the title. Smith suffered three successive first round defeats in the PDC World Championship, losing to Mensur Suljović in 2008, Tony Ayres in 2009, and Darin Young in 2010. He broke this trend in the 2011 PDC World Darts Championship when he beat Shane Tichowitsch 3–1, and reached the last-16 for the second time in his career with a 4–3 win over Mervyn King, which included Smith hitting seven 100+ out-shots. In June, Smith won the Bobby Bourn Memorial Players Championship beating Dave Chisnall 6–2 earning himself £6000. On his way to the final he narrowly beat Wayne Atwood 6–5 before he beat James Richardson also 6–5. He then picked up his form to beat Alan Tabern 6–3 which meant he faced Andy Hamilton 6–2. in the quarter-finals he beat Gary Anderson 6–1 setting up a semi-final clash with the in-form James Wade whom he beat 6–3 before prevailing in the final against Dave Chisnall hitting two 12 darters and two thirteen darters to seal the win. At the 2012 World Championship Smith played Scott Rand in the first round and was beaten 0–3, without winning a leg. At the UK Open, Smith beat Rand 9–6 and came back from 4–8 down in the last 32 to force a decider against Dennis Priestley which he lost. In July, Smith won his first ever match in seven attempts at the World Matchplay following a 10–6 victory over Paul Nicholson. He faced Adrian Lewis in the last 16 and was beaten 7–13. After all 33 ProTour events of 2012 had been played,