How Peter Wright won a second PDC Worlds Darts Championship

At the start of the PDC World Darts Championship, a lot of people would have backed Peter Wright to go the whole way, especially considering how unlucky he was in last year’s competition. Gerwyn Price was eventually crowned champion in 2021, but it appeared the frustrating third round exit he ensured was fuel to the fire en route to a second title — dispatching Michael ‘Bully Boy’ Smith in the showpiece final at Alexandra Palace.

Coming in with one of the highest checkouts alongside fellow Scot Gary Anderson, it was strange to see ‘Snakebite’ start a big final so uncomfortably, falling two sets behind and giving himself a lot to do. Considering how he dispatched of Callum Rydz in the quarters and Anderson in the semis, the darts odds had favoured Wright to cruise ahead, but Smith was in inspired form, and set off like a house on fire.

Smith landed two 180s against the throw in the opening leg and it really stood him in good stead. He capitalised on the thrill of a boisterous Ally Pally and the emotion of the big occasion all came into play, but it looked to be too much after a difficult set allowed Wright to get back into the game. The Scot managed to level things up before pulling ahead in terrific style, frantically hitting 180s like his life depended on it before a 12 darter turned the tides fully in his favour. It was an emotional ending to a testing tournament for Wright, but the 51-year-old was overjoyed after going to the wire with an 81 checkout to finish in style.

“I’m over the moon to lift this amazing trophy for a second time,” He said: “It was a difficult start to the year from me away from darts but I’ve had a great year on the oche and this tops it off. Michael and I didn’t perform how we can for a lot of the game, but it was still an entertaining final because it was so close.”

Victory means Wright joins an exclusive club consisting of Phil Taylor, John Part, Adrian Lewis, Gary Anderson and Michael van Gerwen as players who have won multiple championships. It was a third TV title in a year against a worthy opponent. Smith pushed him to his limits and after beating Price and James Wade to earn his spot in the history books, you felt his purple patch may have allowed him, to upset the darts tips from Betfair. Wright offered his condolences for the St Helens man post-match, and sung his praises after a memorable final.

“Michael is the future of darts, I feel for him tonight because I’ve been in his position.” Wright said. “But, I’ve got to take the chances I get and thankfully I was able to do that tonight. I can’t explain what went wrong with my game tonight, I kept swapping darts trying to find something that worked and thankfully I had a good run at the end. Thank you to the crowd for turning out to support us all tournament, they were amazing.”No matter how great of a player Wright is, he has remained as humble as ever, celebrating his victory with a pot noodle and cup of tea.