Darts star Adam Smith-Neale has admitted he would “do the same thing again” after breaking his silence on his ban from the sport. The 31-year-old appeared to punch an opponent after losing in a county match in March 2024 and was sanctioned by the sport’s authorities.
Smith-Neale was in action at the amateur Nuneaton Darts Open event when he struck his opponent. The incident was captured on security cameras, with the player immediately suspended from the sport. He was then handed an eight-month ban for his actions after accepting a charge that he assaulted an opponent.
Smith-Neale was ranked at No. 82 in the world at the time of the incident and had previously featured in the PDC UK Open as well as the BDO World Championship.
And after dishing out the ban, the Darts Regulation Authority said in a statement: “After Smith-Neale lost the match, his opponent offered his hand and Smith-Neale punched him in the face. The incident was captured on CCTV and attracted considerable media attention. Smith-Neale was suspended by the DRA pending a hearing.
“At the hearing Smith-Neale accepted the charges against him and claimed that he had felt threatened by his opponent which was why he punched him. This was not fully accepted by the committee.”
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Smith-Neale returned to action at the start of this year and played in this summer’s Modus Super Series. And the ace spoke about the incident that led to his ban during an interview with Darts World at the end of last month.
“It was on a Saturday afternoon in a local near where I live in Nuneaton,” he explained. “I was in the semi-final of this tournament and playing a lad who is just a couple of years older than me.
“There was a bit of needle and he made threats towards me, which plenty of people heard. Then my mum got involved and he had a go back at her, making threats also. It was kind of decided between us that we would sort things out after the match.
“Then as he threw the winning dart and walked to retrieve it from the board, he made a derogatory comment under his breath. Well, it was loud enough to clearly hear.
“So when he turned round I gave him a kind of hard slap, which I guess looked like a punch on the video footage. They told me I was suspended pending an investigation for bringing the game into disrepute.”
Discussing his eventual ban, the player continued: “Yeah, I knew a few weeks before it went public.
“They gave me eight months, which was actually quite clever – it still meant I could attend the World Championship qualifiers and Q-School the following January if needed.”
And when asked if he regrets his actions, he bluntly explained: “If someone threatens my family, I would do the same thing again.”