Glen Durrant and Michael Smith will compete on the opening night of the Premier League as good mates after butting heads a couple of times in Durrant’s first year on the PDC circuit.
Duzza is making his debut as a full-time Premier League player in Aberdeen and former finalist Smith is welcoming him into the fold.
The pair get on, it is hard to find anyone that has a bad word to say about Durrant or Smith, but they managed to fall out once or twice over 2019.
It started at the Matchplay in July, when Smith took umbrage to Durrant being favourite for their semi-final clash, which Bully Boy went on to win.
Glen Durrant and Michael Smith in row over ‘disrespect’ shown at Grand Slam of Darts
A spat re-emerged at the Grand Slam when Smith wasn’t convinced Duzza should have been allowed to qualify as a BDO player, and Glen demanded a bit of respect.
It was all a bit odd as both men repeatedly said how much they liked each other, but now it is all water under the bridge, and Durrant sees Smith as a close confidante.
‘At the Matchplay, it’s all behind us, I talk quite candidly about various things now,’ Durrant told Metro.co.uk. ‘He’s become someone I can go to for advice or just to chat to, I do like Michael Smith.
‘He’s terrific, he actually makes you feel quite inferior when you play him. I’ve got a very mechanical throw and he just makes the game look ridiculously easy.
‘He’s one of them players, I try not to look at him because it’s so effortless. There’s World Championships and Matchplays in his future, that’s for sure.’
Durrant has had a good break from darts since losing out in the World Championship quarter-final to Gerwyn Price, after a thoroughly impressive run on debut.
Not in the PDC’s top 16, yet, Duzza sat out the Masters last weekend and returned to play Super League darts for the first time in three years.
Understandably, the three-time BDO world champion attracted plenty of attention, although this was far from helpful for his Premier League preparation.
‘it was a good opportunity to keep fresh, to keep practicing. I went to Super League, so it was quite bizarre that I was playing in front of 12 people and on the tele in the corner was all my potential opponents, including Michael Smith, playing for a £60,000 prize.
‘But I’m looking at it that I’m coming in fresh, I could have done with the match practice, I’d rather have been in Milton Keynes than not, but I’m looking at the positives.
‘I hadn’t done it for three years and it wasn’t the greatest experience. There was a guy who’d had a few drinks and he was shouting to all his friends when I was on and it was only a very small room.
‘Every time I was throwing, another guy was walking in and they didn’t know the darts etiquette, they were talking and a phone went off. If truth be told it was a bit of a disaster.’
One benefit did arise from the experience, though, as Durrant realised he had absolutely no need to be tinkering with his darts.
There has been much talk of new darts recently, with Peter Wright using new arrows to win the World Championship and Michael van Gerwen switching to new darts for this season, but Duzza knows what he likes and he likes what he knows.
‘I did get one thing out of it,’ Glen explained of his Super League appearance. ‘I was trying brand new darts. I realised there was nothing wrong with the darts that got me through 2019, I much prefer the grip than a brand new set so it answered that for me.
‘I felt more confident with my 2019 darts and on Monday and Tuesday I had terrific practice sessions. So I come here now bubbling with confidence.
‘They are exactly the same darts but they hadn’t come out the packet. They felt very new, I guess in an ideal world the moment Ally Pally finished I should have bed them in for three or four weeks, but I soon realised there’s nothing wrong with my 2019 darts.
‘I’ve seen people use darts for 20-30 years, so the fact I’ve been using mine for 10 months is not an issue.
‘It’s the same set-up as last year, I was possibly going to look at it, the stems, flights, points, whatever, but when you get the call for the Premier League, now is not the time for me to change.
‘I’m not a Peter Wright who can take a gamble of trying new equipment in the middle of a Premier League. It’s tried and tested for me.’
Smith and Durrant played five times in 2019 and there was little to split them, with Duzza winning two and Smith claiming the other three.
Their friendly rivalry reignites in Aberdeen as they both hope for the ideal start to their Premier League campaigns.
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