Michael Smith survives three match darts against Heta and meets Aspinall in semifinals in New Zealand

Michael Smith and Nathan Aspinall followed Gerwyn Price and Rob Cross through to the final four at the New Zealand Darts Masters. The semifinals and final will also be played today.

Smith crawled through the eye of the needle against Damon Heta, who missed three match darts to eliminate the reigning world champion at the World Series tournament in Hamilton.

After a 2-3 deficit, Smith led 5-3 via a 16-darter and two 15-darters. In the tenth leg, 'Bullyboy' missed his first matchdart, after which Heta was able to equalize via double 2 and start the last leg. Heta left tops after five visits, but then missed his three match darts on the double 20. Smith had just before left double 4 after a 140 score and then needed two more match darts to take the win.

Aspinall eliminated the last New Zealander still in the tournament. Haupai Puha stunned Dimitri van den Bergh on Friday, but only managed a 78 average against 'The Asp'. That was obviously far too low to rock the World Matchplay champion. Aspinall won the last quarterfinal 6-1 to force an all English semifinal against Smith.