Worlds aftermath

That was a great final. Nowhere near the best, and it's certainly been talked up to be better than it actually was, Littler in particular tailing off in performance more or less straight after the missed darts to go 5-2 up in sets, but it's created phenomenal viewing figures and was a good enough view that it should hopefully have caught the attention of a much greater audience going forward, which can only be a good thing. Whether they stick around in a couple of weeks and watch a couple of jobbers from Bahrain who I could probably beat is a different question, but it's all good. I'm really not sure on Littler's Premier League inclusion, it's going to make for a really, really crowded calendar for him which could easily burn him out - and it's not like he's got a choice, he needs to play the floor events if he's wanting to get into the majors, he can't rely on his ranking for anything other than the worlds, and a UK Open selection. That said, I completely get it from a marketing and profitability standpoint, the PL is a huge exbo after all and it's why that's likely the last you'll be hearing about it on this blog until this time next year likely. For now, the year end FRH top 100 (+/- are from this time last year):

1 Luke Humphries 1.25m (+4)

2 Michael Smith 657k (-1)

3 Michael van Gerwen 644k (-1)

4 Nathan Aspinall 432k (+3)

5 Rob Cross 426k (+1)

6 Gerwyn Price 407k (-2)

7 Peter Wright 356k (-4)

8 Jonny Clayton 354k (+2)

9 Dave Chisnall 350k (+9)

10 Damon Heta 328k (+4)

11 Joe Cullen 306k (+1)

12 Danny Noppert 284k (-4) 

13 Stephen Bunting 273k (+9)

14 Chris Dobey 269k (+6)

15 Dirk van Duijvenbode 266k (-4)

16 James Wade 265k (0)

17 Andrew Gilding 253k (+21)

18 Ross Smith 247k (-5)

19 Dimitri van den Bergh 243k (-10) 

20 Josh Rock 242k (+10)

21 Ryan Searle 232k (-3)

22 Gabriel Clemens 220k (-3)

23 Gary Anderson 210k (0)

24 Martin Schindler 205k (0)

25 Krzysztof Ratajski 205k (-4)

26 Luke Littler 202k (NEW)

27 Brendan Dolan 193k (-1)

28 Daryl Gurney 182k (-1)

29 Jose de Sousa 162k (-15)

30 Raymond van Barneveld 162k (-2)

31 Scott Williams 158k (+16)

32 Ricardo Pietreczko 133k (+62)

33 Ryan Joyce 120k (+15)

34 Gian van Veen 120k (+59)

35 Kim Huybrechts 115k (-6)

36 Luke Woodhouse 112k (+14)

37 Callan Rydz 104k (-12)

38 Mike de Decker 102k (+14)

39 Madars Razma 99.5k (-7)

40 Jim Williams 90.2k (+3)

41 Martin Lukeman 88.2k (-4)

42 Steve Beaton 77.1k (+14)

43 Matt Campbell 77.1k (+16)

44 Jermaine Wattimena 74.1k (+2)

45 Willie O'Connor 74.1k (+5)

46 Simon Whitlock 72.5k (-5)

47 Ricky Evans 71.8k (+4)

48 Keane Barry 70.3k (-6)

49 Alan Soutar 66.1k (-18)

50 Florian Hempel 64.4k (+3)

51 Michael Mansell 63.9k (+12)

52 Cameron Menzies 62.8k (+13)

53 Richard Veenstra 61.6k (NEW)

54 Kevin Doets 61.6k (+28)

55 Niels Zonneveld 60.3k (+14)

56 Radek Szaganski 59.0k (NEW)

57 Steve Lennon 58.8k (+13)

58 Rowby John Rodriguez 57.7k (-19)

59 Jamie Hughes 55.6k (-2)

60 Boris Krcmar 55.4k (-6)

61 Ritchie Edhouse 54.0k (-12)

62 Mario Vandenbogaerde 53.7k (NEW)

63 Connor Scutt 52.6k (NEW)

64 Ian White 52.2k (-9)

65 Berry van Peer 48.8k (NEW)

66 Adam Gawlas 48.1k (-5)

67 Mensur Suljovic 48.0k (-31)

68 Vincent van der Voort 47.6k (-35)

69 Martijn Kleermaker 47.0k (-25)

70 Ryan Meikle 44.1k (-25)

71 Lee Evans 43.7k (NEW)

72 Mervyn King 42.5k (-38)

73 Keegan Brown 42.0k (-7)

74 Nathan Rafferty 40.6k (-12)

75 Adrian Lewis 39.5k (-40)

76 Jules van Dongen 39.2k (NEW)

77 Karel Sedlacek 39.0k (-19)

78 Dylan Slevin 37.4k (NEW)

79 Christian Kist 37.1k (NEW)

80 Stowe Buntz 36.0k (NEW)

81 Maik Kuivenhoven 30.4k (-2)

82 Jeffrey de Zwaan 30.1k (+6)

83 Richie Burnett 29.8k (+16)

84 Rusty Jake Rodriguez 28.6k (-10)

85 Darius Labanauskas 28.0k (-25)

86 Jeffrey de Graaf 27.5k (NEW)

87 Scott Waites 26.9k (-3)

88 Stephen Burton 26.8k (NEW)

89 Danny Jansen 26.2k (-22)

90 George Killington 25.5k (NEW)

91 Ted Evetts 24.8k (-15)

92 Geert Nentjes 24.5k (-24)

93 Daniel Klose 24.2k (NEW)

94 Andy Boulton 23.1k (-2)

95 Fallon Sherrock 22.7k (-14)

96 Krzysztof Kciuk 22.5k (NEW)

97 Robert Owen 22.5k (NEW)

98 Bradley Brooks 22.4k (-8)

99 Jeff Smith 22.2k (-28)

100 John O'Shea 21.8k (-25)

That's a total of 16 changes from last season, players we've not seen return are Sebastian Bialecki, Lisa Ashton, Jose Justicia, Adam Hunt, Jason Heaver, Jason Lowe, Scott Mitchell, Jimmy Hendriks, John Henderson, Danny van Trijp, Willie Borland, Raymond Smith, Ron Meulenkamp, Danny Baggish, Devon Petersen and Joe Murnan. Perhaps surprisingly, the entirety of the top 70 from last year stuck around, as opposed to anyone dropping from a lot lower.

The rapid Premier League announcement also allows us to nail down our Second and Third Division participants for 2024:

Division Two

On last season's rankings: Danny Noppert, Dave Chisnall

On last season's third division rankings: Kevin Doets

On year end FRH rankings: Jonny Clayton, Damon Heta, Joe Cullen, Stephen Bunting

Wildcard one: Gary Anderson (clearly upped his game to an elite level, and playing enough to warrant a pick)

Wildcard two: Chris Dobey (next player out on the rankings, clear top ten player on the analytics)

Wildcard three: Ross Smith (only a fraction below Dobey in scoring, none of the players between Dobey and Smith in rankings really excited me)

Division Three

On last season's third division rankings: Ricardo Pietreczko, Rowby John Rodriguez

World youth champion: In Premier League

On year end FRH rankings: Dimitri van den Bergh, Josh Rock, Martin Schindler, Gian van Veen

Wildcard one: Keane Barry (close to one of the last players out, still excellent standard)

Wildcard two: Berry van Peer (outstanding Challenge Tour season along with good results on the senior level both in and out of the PDC)

Wildcard three: Dylan Slevin (highest ranking on the Development Tour not in with a tour card, showing flashes on the main tour

Wildcard four: Callan Rydz (winner on tour this year, inconsistent though)

Expect another post shortly, and the year end awards probably over the weekend, but that might get delayed a bit.

Edit - for whatever reason I thought Dimitri was way too old for division three but he's not 30 until July so he's still eligible