Ross Smith was crowned European champion for a second time, as the Dover native silenced the home crowd to take an 11-8 win against Germany’s own Martin Schindler in the final in Dortmund.
Top seed Smith began his weekend at the Westfallenhalle with a win against Karel Sedlacek, and further successes against Damon Heta, Luke Woodhouse and Gerwyn Price saw him into his first European Championship final since he won it in 2022.
Schindler was riding the wave of his home support, and had made his maiden PDC Premier event final, and became the first German to reach a PDC major TV final by edging past Wessel Nijman in a final-leg thriller, before blasting past Jermaine Wattimena, Jonny Clayton and Krzysztof Ratajski in emphatic wins to make the trophy match.
Smith rode his luck somewhat to be 3-2 ahead at the first intermission, but there was nothing lucky about the second portion of the match, as ‘Smudger’ secured the first break of throw of the contest with an 86 finish, and completed a clean sweep with a 91 checkout that put him 8-2 up.
Schindler took a scrappy 11th leg to break the Smith throw for the first time, only for Smith to respond immediately, but Schindler pounced on four missed darts at double from Smith to break back, and he then held throw in 15 darts and took out 116 in the following leg to trail 9-6.
A 127 finish on the bullseye made it four straight legs for ‘The Wall’, but Smith arrested the slide in the nick of time, a 16-darter enough to put him 10-7 up and a leg away from glory, and although Schindler held throw to force Smith to serve the match out, Smith thrived, where he found a tenth 180, and after missing four championship darts, he pinned double five to get over the line.
The win moves Smith up to number six in the Order of Merit, as he scooped the £150,000 first prize.
Earlier on in the evening, Smith was first into the final, and he had a mid-match surge to take an 11-7 win against Gerwyn Price.
All looked rosy in the garden for Price early on, as he forged a 4-1 advantage, but that was quickly wiped out by Smith, who found a purple patch to break the back of the match to move 9-6 ahead, and he then won two of the next three legs to advance to the showpiece.
Schindler joined Smith, as he was dominant early on before completing an 11-6 win against Krzysztof Ratajski, who had toppled Luke Littler earlier on in the day.
Schindler rode the wave of the home crowd, establishing a 4-1 lead, and although Ratajski broke with a 121 finish immediately after the break, Schindler kept up his charge, and went 8-2 up at the second interval.
Ratajski gave it his all, plugging the gap to 9-6, but it was to no avail, as Schindler, roared on by nearly 7,000, completed the job to move into his first Premier Event final.
2026 Machineseeker European Championship
Sunday October 25
Evening Session
Semi-Finals
Ross Smith 11-7 Gerwyn Price
Martin Schindler 11-6 Krzysztof Ratajski
Final
Ross Smith 11-8 Martin Schindler
