Rab Smith

Smith was introduced to darts around the age of 9 or 10 by his father. Smith told Patrick Chaplin in 2011, "The family lived in a big house in the country and I used to practice and practice." He joined a darts team in the Dumfries pub league around the age of 16. His inspiration to improve was a local player named Joe Little at another Dumfries pub, The Hole I' The Wa' (The Hole in the Wall)."From the age of sixteen I would go into town to play darts. I met Joe Little in the pub and we played darts and he beat me. I kept going back and he kept beating me. I really wanted to beat him. I practiced and practiced and worked on my game, mostly on Saturday lunchtimes and at night because I worked all day. I also practiced 12 noon to 1 p.m. most days as well… practice, practice, practice. Then all the practice paid off and I beat him."[1]

In 1973 his ability as a Dumfries county player was quickly recognised by the newly-founded Scottish Darts Association (SDA). He debuted for Scotland in the 1973 Home Internationals. Smith continued to represent Scotland until he gave up professional darts in the early 1980s. He succeeded George Nicol to captain Scotland for five of those years.[1]

Smith's breakthrough on the major tournament circuit was winning the Scottish Masters in 1976 beating Dave Hill in the final.[2] He became the NDAGB Scottish Champion that same year.[1]

1977 was Smith's best year. He was the NDAGB British Champion playing in the final the north-west's Eric Barlow. Barlow had pulled off the shock of the tournament in beating the then world number one, John Lowe. Smith beat Barlow 2–0.[1] In defending the Scottish Masters he was runner-up to Bobby Semple.[2] In March he represented Scotland in the Queen's Silver Jubilee 3's International Classic with team mates George Nicol and Eric MacLean in London. With the final all square between Scotland and England, Smith played Eric Bristow in the decider. Bristow was way in front after twelve darts before having 'double trouble'. Smith described in one report 'had stolen up like a black cat in the night', and threw a 72 finish to clinch the trophy.[1] Smith won the British Pentathlon, beating Alan Glazier in the final.[3] In winning the British Matchplay he beat Bill Lennard in the semi-finals and then Eric Bristow in the final.[4] With the final all square at 3–3, Smith stood at the oche needing 36. Bristow appeared to know what would happen and put his darts down on the table. Smith initially hit single 18 but then finished on double 9. Smith had hit four maximum 180s during that final.[1] In 1977 he also won the Golden Darts Championship.[5] He eliminated Andre Declerq of Belgium and Wales' Alan Evans and then beat John Lowe in the final. As well as the £1,000 first prize Smith was also presented with a set of 18ct 'golden darts' and a special prize of 'a mere quarter ounce gold nugget' for scoring 180. In 2007 Smith gave the 'golden darts' to his grandson Rory for his first birthday.[1]

On the announcement of the world rankings in early 1978 Smith placed at four. If he had just one more major tournament win in 1977 he would have been ranked at number one.[1] In 1978 he represented Scotland as his team were WDF Europe Cup Team Winners.[6]

In 1979 he was third in the British Pentathlon when John Lowe beat Eric Bristow in the final.[7]

Smith reached the final of the 1980 Winmau World Masters, beating Cliff Lazarenko, Canadian Bob Sinnaeve and USA's Nicky Virachkul to reach the final, where he lost to John Lowe. The same year he again reached the WDF Europe Team Cup Final. Paired with Alistair Forrester the Scots lost out in the final to the Swedish pair of Stefan Lord and Bjørn Enqvist.[6] In the singles event of that year's tournament he reached the semi-final.[8]

In 1981 captaining[9] Jocky Wilson and Angus Ross for Scotland, Smith won the 1981 BDO Nations Cup beating Bristow, Lowe and Lazarenko of England in the final.[10] Each Scot won their leg against Lazarenko. Smith also defeated Lowe and Wilson beat Bristow for a 5–4 win.[11] Dave Lanning commentating described "The indeterminable Rab Smith" as, "A fine, fluid player on his day" and "a dapper little character, there's a lot said about the big gross darts players but Rab presents a very neat, clean cut image."[9] Lowe beat Smith 2–1 in the News of the World Individual Darts Championship semi final at the Wembley Arena. Smith later said, "I was on double four with John back on 140 or 160. He threw and left double top. In my next throw I clipped the top wire of double four three times. Then John hit double top."[1]

Smith played in the first six successive Embassy World Darts Championships. In the first ever World Championship in 1978, Smith defeated Ireland's Patrick Clifford 6–0 in the first round but lost in the quarter-finals to Sweden's Stefan Lord. In 1979, Smith beat United States's Conrad Daniels in the first round and then avenged his defeat of Lord in the previous year by beating him in the second round, he went on to bow out in the quarter-final once more, losing to then-reigning champion Leighton Rees of Wales. Smith suffered a first round exit in 1980, lost to Tony Sontag. In 1981, he beat Wayne Lock in the first round, before losing to Nicky Virachkul in the second round. He then suffered two successive first round exits firstly to fellow Scot and that year's winner, Jocky Wilson in 1982. In 1983 he was eliminated by Australian Kevin White.[8]

By 1983 Smith by his own admission had 'had enough'. "The kids were young and I was never at home; sometimes being away six days a week. I didn't want to lose my family life so I gave up." When asked if he had regrets from giving up professional darts at a relatively young age Smith said, "Not really. There was always too much travel: hundreds of miles." Smith also gave up playing county darts around the same time.[1]