Jonny Clayton reaches UK Open semi-final for second time with narrow Michael Smith win

Jonny Clayton is the latest player through to the semi-finals of the 2025 UK Open after his revival continued with a superb win over Michael Smith 10-8 on Sunday afternoon.

Clayton has shown shoots of life in recent months after a period in the darting doldrums and now has a major semi-final on his CV again. He will be added to the hat alongside Josh Rock and Luke Littler later.

Also added will be Luke Humphries or James Wade who tussle in the last Quarter-Final. For Smith, it is so close yet so far as he gets a reward after a poor few months. He has struggled with arthritis on his arm and despite not yet being in major winning form, he is close.

After a few months of going out in first rounds, he has battled the demons that have engulfed him and has come out of the other side. Not enough to reach a semi-final though as that goes to Clayton.

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The first five legs of the match all went with the darts, before Smith posted a break in the fourth leg with a 13-darter and then managed to make it 5-2 with a 108 finish. Clayton, however, fought back by throwing out 116 and 101 and levelled the score with a 17-darter in the tenth leg.

After the break, Smith hit the double 16 to lead 6-5, but then three legs in a row went to Clayton. ‘The Ferret’ then made it 9-7, missing a matchdart on the bullseye in the seventeenth leg. Smith narrowed the deficit to 9-8 and had a chance to go for the equaliser in the following leg. However which he missed the double 11, after which Clayton won the match via double 4.

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