Michael Smith stunned fans by hitting a nine-darter in the first hour of playing with a new set of darts.
The Bully Boy suffered a weekend to forget in Blackpool after he was miserably dumped out of the World Matchplay by Chris Dobey in the second round.
The world champion headed to the Winter Gardens as one of the favourites as he looked to set right his 2019 runners-up finish against Rob Cross and land the Matchplay for the first time in his career.
But Smith was undone in disappointing fashion by a resilient Dobey after the Bully Boy had made light work of Steve Beaton in the first round.
READ MORE: Nathan Aspinall was 'vomiting backstage' before historic World Matchplay win
But Smith looks to have bounced back to his best after he posted a picture of two darts in the treble 20 and another in double 12.
He captioned the post: “Back to work today time to put maximum effort in now for the rest of the year. Not a bad start though. 1st 9 with the new darts within the 1st hour after 5 days off.”
Do you think Smith will bounce back from a disappointing World Matchplay? Let us know in the comments section below
Smith clearly hasn’t lost his touch from the Ally Pally final where he hit an incredible nine-darter against Michael van Gerwen.
The greatest leg of darts of all time and Wayne Mardle’s iconic “I can't spake” commentary comes rushing back to mind from Smith’s post. And at this rate, Smith may be expected to keep banging in one nine-darter per hour.
Although it’s unknown whether Smith is about to deploy Peter Wright level of dart switching, or whether he just needed a fresh pair to banish the Matchplay blues.
Next up for Smith is the New Zealand Darts Masters at the beginning of August. Last year Smith was beaten in the semi-final by Jonny Clayton, who went on to lose against compatriot Gerwyn Price in the final.
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