{"id":564939,"date":"2026-08-10T18:46:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T18:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/564939\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T18:46:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T18:46:20","slug":"nz-darts-masters-ross-smith-reigniting-kiwi-connections-made-during-covid-19-tournaments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/564939\/","title":{"rendered":"NZ Darts Masters: Ross Smith reigniting Kiwi connections made during Covid-19 tournaments"},"content":{"rendered":"

That will change this coming week after Smith was named among the eight PDC stars competing at the New Zealand Darts Masters<\/a> in Auckland.<\/p>\n

Nicknamed \u201cSmudger\u201d, Smith is one of two PDC players making their New Zealand debut, alongside Dutch world No 2 Gian van Veen.<\/p>\n

The 37-year-old from Kent had originally booked a family holiday to Greece for August but managed to bring it forward once the invitation to New Zealand came through.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Herald from Greece, Smith said he was hoping to face either Robb or Puha.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember playing Haupai quite a few times and Ben as well,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was quite strange playing these guys on the other side of the world live. It was all through Covid when darts sort of stopped. We were lucky to continue, have some fun and play online.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re good lads and great players. It\u2019ll be good to meet up with them and have a game when I come over.\u201d<\/p>\n

A trip to New Zealand has long been on Smith\u2019s bucket list after hearing stories from his father, who visited the country in his younger days.<\/p>\n

However, he almost missed the opportunity because of a communication breakdown after recently changing management companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy manager didn\u2019t actually pick the email up, so I didn\u2019t realise I\u2019d been picked,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in my kitchen and the PDC rang me to asking me to respond. It was a bit of a shock and a no-brainer.\u201d<\/p>\n

One thing Smith will not be doing, however, is bungee jumping from the Sky Tower \u2013 an attraction several visiting darts stars have tackled over the years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not a fan of heights,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m absolutely terrified of heights.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve heard about the tower and I\u2019ve seen clips of a few others doing it a year or two ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely not for me, although I could still be persuaded. It depends whether you all want to see me cry like a little baby.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RossRoss Smith will play at the 2026 New Zealand Darts Masters. Photo \/ PDC<\/p>\n

Since winning the European Championship in 2022, Smith has established himself among the elite players on the PDC circuit, allowing him to leave his job as a truck driver and focus on darts fulltime.<\/p>\n

The world No 16 has earned more than $3 million in career prizemoney and has already claimed three titles this year, including the International Darts Open in Germany.<\/p>\n

While the demands of being an elite darts player are intense, Smith wouldn\u2019t change anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re among the top players, you might only be at home once or twice a week,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something I\u2019m never going to complain about. I\u2019m very privileged to be in the position I am.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also don\u2019t want to become too relaxed. I like to keep my feet on the ground, keep working hard and not take things for granted.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very busy, but I love it and I don\u2019t miss tournaments unless it\u2019s for a very good reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

PDC representatives: Gian van Veen (Netherlands), Jonny Clayton (Wales), James Wade (England), Josh Rock (Northern Ireland), Gerwyn Price (Wales), Stephen Bunting (England), Ross Smith (England), Damon Heta (Australia).<\/p>\n

Oceanic representatives: Ben Robb, Jonny Tata, Haupai Puha, Mark Cleaver, Kayden Milne (all New Zealand), Adam Leek, Simon Whitlock, Raymond Smith (all Australia).<\/p>\n

Ben Francis<\/a> is an Auckland-based reporter for the New Zealand Herald who covers breaking sports news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"That will change this coming week after Smith was named among the eight PDC stars competing at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[9092,11164,33658,81317,45426,278037,2837,11908,11676,194,174300,1362,58253,111,139,69,1642,10702,173328,38985,88859,40584,16189,213,5433,2737,1120,1361,1961,52170,23366,1316,102,80],"class_list":["post-564939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-against","tag-began","tag-connections","tag-covid19","tag-darts","tag-duels","tag-during","tag-english","tag-hell","tag-kiwi","tag-lockdowns","tag-made","tag-masters","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-online","tag-players","tag-reigniting","tag-reviving","tag-rivalries","tag-ross","tag-smith","tag-sports","tag-stage","tag-star","tag-takes","tag-that","tag-this","tag-tournaments","tag-weekends","tag-when","tag-with","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}