Ross Smith missed out on a place in the last 32 of the Home Tour.

He lost a deciding match against 21-year-old Dutchman Geert Nentjes.

Smith played his group stage matches from his garden shed in PDC’s innovative new tournament, where players face each other from their own homes.

The Deal professional - a quarter finalist at the 2019 UK Open - was the highest ranked player in his group and got off to a great start, defeating four-times ladies champion Lisa Ashton in the opening game.

He averaged close to 100 to defeat the ‘Lancashire Rose’, losing just one leg.

Smith admitted he was “pretty nervous” despite playing without a crowd from a log cabin that he had constructed in his garden a year ago.

He was up against Northern Ireland’s Mickey Mansell in his second game and was beaten 5-3.

The impressive Nentjes had won his first two group games, against Mansell (5-4) and Ashton (5-3), but Smith knew he could still quality with a win in the last match against the youngster from the Netherlands.

It wasn’t looking good for the Kent thrower, however, after losing the opening three legs but he fought back to 4-3, taking out 110 on the way, as he looked to make a game of it.

But any hopes of a remarkable fightback were ended when Geert took the next leg to win it 5-3 and claim a place in the knock-out stages.

“He played fantastic,” conceded Smith. “He has played great all night, its just the way it goes.”