Swiss Darts Trophy Saturday afternoon Round-up | Ross Smith avoids seeds destruction as Michael Smith rolls back the years with imperious display

The seeds have entered the Swiss Darts Trophy, and many of them have also exited it after a brutal afternoon session.

Headlining the action, there were a couple of world champions featuring. Rob Cross was the first up, and he took on the 2025 finalist Luke Woodhouse. After averaging almost 106 yesterday, ‘Voltage’ made light work his opponent in a 6-4 win.

The outer ring was not an area where Woodhouse was clinical on in this match. On the other hand, Cross was as he took a 2-0 lead. ‘Woody’ had chances to break back but Cross stayed firm and led 3-1. Another break was backed up with a hold and Cross was 5-1 to the good. A three-leg burst by Woodhouse got him back in contention, including one leg where he went seven darts into the nine. Cross halted the comeback with a 14-dart hold to advance into the third round.

Michael Smith followed in the same footsteps. It was his first European Tour appearance in five months, and the 2023 world champion was showing some of his best darts with a flurry of terrific checkouts. He defeated Jermaine Wattimena 6-4 with a 102.65 average.

Wattimena took the opening leg in 20 darts, but a 116 and 124 checkout from 'Bully Boy' put him in control. The match was going on at a fast pace with Smith's lead also growing quickly. A third consecutive ton+ finish was the best of the crop, in the form of a 144 checkout. He almost continued this trend with a 1170 and 141 checkout missed on the double. Wattimena won both legs and levelled at 3-3. Smith seized back the break advantage with his lowest checkout of the match, a 96 finish in two. 'The Machine Gun' broke back, but again Smith was there. He threw for the match and had no problem in getting in the third round on the European Tour for the third time this year.

Karel Sedlacek recently became the first Czech player to win a PDC ranking title. His purple patch continues with a 6-4 win over Wessel Nijman. The match began on throw. A brilliant 12-darter by Sedlacek got him into this match before a 106 response by Nijman was a great response. However, Sedlacek would win the next three legs and sprint 5-3 ahead. Nijman was scoring well, but at the end of legs ‘Evil Charlie’ was the one in command. The Dutchman forced him to throw it out, and under pressure he took out 61 on double 16 to prevail.

This has closed the gap to Stephen Bunting in the race to the European Championship to £5,000. Martin Schindler sat in 31st at the start of the day and was in desperate need of a win. He could not get the result he needed with Tom Bissell prevailing 6-4.

‘The Business’ was not overly convincing against Joe Cullen but was better today. He broke to go 2-1 ahead. Schindler got back in it before the Englishman got himself back ahead. He kept a hold of that break advantage for the rest of the proceedings. ‘The Wall’ took out 108 to keep his hopes alive, but an 81 checkout for an 11-dart hold secured Bissell a huge European Tour breakthrough.

This was a good result for Cristo Reyes. He is looking good to return to the European Championship for the first time since 2018 and now even better with a 6-4 win over Ryan Searle. ‘Heavy Metal’ found his range on tops very early. The 2024 finalist got a break of throw right at the start. He took out 117 to move 3-1 ahead, but a clinical Reyes kept tabs with his opponent. He finally broke back to level at 4-4 with Searle starting to miss. This trend continued as ‘The Spartan’ took the lead for the first time.

The number one in Europe, Ross Smith, was kept on his toes by a terrific William O’Connor. A 103.93 average was not enough for ‘The Magpie’ to prevail as Smith won 6-4. A 13-darter from Smudger and 104 checkout from O’Connor got the match off to a flyer. The Irishman was averaging over 108 halfway through the match, with Smith not too far behind. He broke the throw, but Smith got back level. The former European champion then seized the initiative on two occasions. He was pegged back once, but the second time O’Connor failed to respond. Despite putting in a blinding performance, an 85 outshot blasted Smith into the third round and left O’Connor scratching his head.

From two ton+ averages to two players averaging in the mid-80s. It was not a classic between Chris Dobey and Bradley Brooks, with the latter capitalising on his opponents' misfortunes on the outer ring to come out on top 6-4.Dobey strode ahead first, breaking to go 2-1 to the good and keeping that advantage for a while with Brooks struggling to get going. After taking a 4-2 lead, Dobey missed his next 16 darts at a double. Brooks fought his way back into it, missing 10 darts on the outer ring in a 26-dart leg to go 5-4 ahead. Dobey missed 28 darts at a double in that contest and would be the latest seed to be added to the graveyard as Brooks reaches the third round for the first time.

The Basel crowd had just one hope in round two action, and he is already out. Stefan Bellmont was not at the races against Krzysztof Ratajski, who won 6-2. From the off, it was total domination. Bellmont’s scoring was not anywhere near the usual levels, and the ‘Polish Eagle’ capitalised. He stormed out to a commanding 5-0 lead and had the darts to see it out. Bellmont commenced a mini fightback, but it turned out to be a consolation prize with a 112 checkout getting the job done.