MICHAEL Smith misses out on a World Series of Darts semi-final for the second consecutive weekend.

The St Helens thrower lost 10-9 to Peter Wright in today's quarter-final in Unibet Melbourne Darts Masters in Australia.

Both players started in scrappy style with the pair missing 17 darts at doubles between them in the opening five legs.

It was Smith who took the initiative in the early stages of the match, breaking in the first leg.

That advantage remained until eight leg of the match, where Wright took out 60 on tops to level the score.

Wright then strung a further four consecutive legs together to take an 8-4 lead, including a 121 finish on the bullseye.

Smith produced an impressive sequence of his own to win five of the next six legs and take the match into a decider.

Wright started the 19th leg with a maximum and remained in control, before finding tops to secure his spot in the last four.

“You only have to look at the averages to know it was a poor start, but I slowly got going and started to show the best of me at the end,” said Wright.

“I want to win here and I’m still going, so let’s come back tomorrow and go again,” added the world number three.

Daryl Gurney defeated Gary Anderson for the third successive time join Wright, Phil Taylor and Simon Whitlock in tomorrow's semi finals.

Smith reached the last eight with his victory on Friday night over David Platt, who missed double 12 for a nine-dart finish before losing out to the St Helens thrower.

A brilliant start saw Platt land double 12 to win the opening leg before opening the second with two 180s, and after landing a seventh treble 20 and the treble 19, he wired double 12 for what would have been only the second perfect leg in World Series history.

He returned to win the leg in ten darts, but Smith clawed his way back level before taking the lead at 3-2 with a classy 113 finish, and he also landed a 14-darter and double two to move 5-2 up.

Double top kept Platt's hopes alive, but Smith sealed victory by finishing 106 on double 16.

"All these guys can play darts and David showed that," said Smith.

"I wanted him to hit the nine-darter - it's great for darts when moments like that happen - and if anything it helped kick me into life.

"It was scrappy, it was a bit messy at times but I got the job done."

Smith will be hoping to go at least one step further in the final event of the series in Perth next weekend.