SWINDON thrower Dennis Smith was back to his best as he powered past several big names to make the final of the John McEvoy Gold Dart Classic Players Championship at the weekend.

‘Smiffy’ dumped out top players including Adrian Lewis and Ronnie Baxter on his way to a last-two showdown with Gary Anderson at the Killarney Darts Festival, which he lost 6-1.

The run secured the Wiltshire man a £3,000 prize as he reached his first ranking final since November 2004, to give a huge boost to his chances of qualifying for the World Darts Championship.

Beginning the day with a 6-1 thrashing of Steve Grubb, Smith followed that up with a 6-3 defeat of Ian Dobson before stunning Phil Taylor’s highly-rated protégé, Adrian Lewis, in the third round.

Scarcely less impressive was a crushing 6-2 victory over Lancastrian Ronnie Baxter, before a 6-1 drubbing of Barrie Bates booked his semi-final spot.

There he came from 3-2 down to see off Colin Osborne 6-4, and only Anderson managed to put the brakes on Smith’s charge in the final.

“It was a brilliant weekend and nice to get back to my old self,” Smith told the Advertiser.

“in the last few weeks I’ve been putting a lot of practise in recently to improve my game and it’s paying off.

“I’ve had some really good tournaments recently and it’s been like when I was world number five.

“It’s virtually guaranteed me for the World Championships at Alexandra Palace. It’s 99.9 per cent that I’m there and I’d have to do something drastically wrong not to qualify.”

For Anderson, it was his fourth title of 2010 as he bounced back impressively from his quarter-final loss to Phil Taylor a week ago in the World Grand Prix.

Anderson dropped just four legs in his first four matches of the day, defeating Tony Manning, Kevin Dowling, Kevin McDine and Tony Eccles before seeing off Jamie Caven 6-3 in the quarter-finals.

He was made to work hard by Wales’ Richie Burnett in the semis, coming from 4-3 and 5-4 down to win 6-5, before defeating Smith in the final.