Weekend update

My takes on what'll happen in tonight's Euro Tour qualifier and the two Players Championship events this weekend won't be up until at the earliest Monday, or more likely Tuesday - I'm away for the weekend without access to be able to update. The qualifier should be of great interest - there's some big names there including Kyle Anderson, Steve Beaton, Chris Dobey, Brendan Dolan, Mervyn King, Adrian Lewis, Robert Thornton, Raymond van Barneveld and both the Websters. That's very strong and with 18 places up for grabs, it's going to take some good play for the upcoming players who have got good starts to the season to even qualify, add on that only Gary Anderson out of the top 16 in the Pro Tour rankings didn't enter, going more than one and done will be really tricky.

I haven't watched a single dart of the Premier League, but the level of parity is very surprising - even Huybrechts and Klaasen, who are currently bottom and two points adrift of Lewis, are getting in positions to win, Kim drawing three, Klaasen winning one, drawing another, being in a good position against Barney yesterday etc. With three weeks to go before the bottom two cutoff, it's still wide open, Klaasen's run in isn't the hardest, Huybrechts' is tougher, they both have to play Lewis which will be critical. Meanwhile at the top, Wright and van Gerwen look like the picks so far, but it wouldn't take much for someone just below to go on a run and claw them back. I might watch some of next week just because it's Rotterdam, we'll see.