Team Unicorn duo Gary Anderson and Michael Smith have picked up notable awards at the prestigious PDC Awards night.
Smith was named Players Player of the Year, while Anderson won the Fans’ Award at the Dorchester Hotel in London on Monday night.
For Smith, it is just reward after the best 12 months of his career and extra special because the accolade comes from his fellow professionals.
He reached the World Championship Final, the Premier League Final, the World Series Final and picked up the biggest win of his career so far at the Shanghai Darts Masters. Smith is also up to a career high No.6 in the world.
He landed back from his honeymoon to news of the award. “I am genuinely gobsmacked! It is an amazing feeling to know that the other players thought that I deserved this. I now have to make sure that 2019 is even better and that means winning big TV titles,” he said.
Anderson won the UK Open, World Matchplay and US Darts Masters and just missed out on the Grand Slam to become fans favourite for 2018.
The other awards saw World Champion Michael Van Gerwen named PDC Player of the Year and Pro Tour Player of 2018. German Max Hopp won Young Player of the Year and Luke Humphries was named Best Newcomer.
Daryl Gurney won the award for best TV performance of the year for his victory over Van Gerwen at the Players Championship Finals.
And the special award went to Rod Harrington who was deservedly inducted into the PDC Hall of Fame. Rod was the driving force behind the PDC Unicorn Challenge and Development Tours.
By STUART PYKE
Images courtesy Lawrence Lustig / PDC
