Jeff Smith is in a confident mood ahead of returning to the UK ahead of the PDC Summer Series which takes place from July 8-12 this week.

Smith reached the final of the first Players Championship event of the year after previously regaining his Tour Card only a few weeks prior.

'The Silencer' said that he has kept up the practice during lockdown but that nothing beats the thrill of competitive action.

"I'm feeling confident about coming back over," said Smith in a recent interview with Darts World. "I was off to a flier straight off the bat, made the final in the first event I played.

"Money was coming in on the rankings, everything was looking good. I should have been boarding a plane to Germany [for a European Tour event] and instead I was boarding one to come home!

"Since then I’ve been practising every day and playing online - most of the players have been playing webcam darts in different scenarios for a few months now but I'm looking forward to getting back to face-to-face competition for sure."

For the Canadian, he lost his business last year to a devastating fire but this gave him new desire to give darts a full go again and it worked out.

"You've just got to make the best out of a bad situation," Smith added. "Maybe it worked out for me in the end. It gave me that kick to get back into the darts again.

"My shop went up and that was back in August. So instead I put some serious hours on the board in the view to going back to Q School. The proof is in the pudding that you put the effort in and the rewards are there.

"I had full intentions of re-building it in the spring but I ended up getting my PDC Tour Card and I wanted to see how that worked out before I committed to anything back home."