Littler is just so good. I think the last time we saw anyone this far ahead of the field was peak MvG, and looking back a few posts, going off at evens (he's even gone odds on in some places) might be slightly short but completely understandable. Any time he loses a match seems to make the headlines, and it's really hard to see anyone getting remotely close - although maybe the best chance might come in this little section, but we'll get to that. Having already won basically everything the sport has to offer, the only real question is how long he stays motivated for. There's been occasions where in games it looks like he's metaphorically playing with his food, seemingly not giving a fuck for half the match before turning on the afterburners and running away with the game. That said, as we saw in last year's final, when he needs to start quickly, he certainly can.
Darius returns here for a seventh appearance. He dropped his card two years ago having for all intents and purposes being someone just making up the numbers on tour in 2023, but did enough in the Nordic events to qualify last year (having got a fairly awkward draw in Ryan Joyce), and this year he gets here through the Pro Tour - making a fast start on the Challenge Tour by winning one event in the first weekend and then two in the second, this gave him enough to get into the Pro Tour via the top up list basically all season, having a best spell in mid season and augmenting his record with a Nordic tour win in Finland and four Euro Tour appearances, although only getting the one win against Ryan Searle (blame the PDC's rules for that one). The stats don't look that much better than when he dropped off the tour however, and given the draw I don't think we need to seriously discuss chances further.
Mario was the last player into the field in the "good" pot, and has work to do to make his tour card safe. One win might be enough (and realistically is all he can get) but he could certainly do with some help from other results. After a little bit of a down 2024, the Belgian recovered nicely in 2025, actually translating what always looked like alright numbers into results, being one of the year's surprise Pro Tour finalists, losing out in Leicester to Ryan Searle by a narrow margin, but this, along with a decent start seeing three board wins in the first half of the Pro Tour season, and four Euro Tour appearances with a peak of round three, sees him well up the Pro Tour rankings. Mario was mainly known as a BDO/WDF large field knockout specialist, but has reached a Lakeside semi and had an alright UK Open outing, beating Labanauskas and Veenstra before running Schindler fairly close, so does have some TV results.
David was a pretty much unknown name to me this time last year, but has made huge strides in the second half of 2025 to become someone on the radar, getting here by winning a very tough UK and Ireland qualifier, where he needed to beat the likes of Steve West, Henry Coates and then Lakeside champion Shane McGuirk in the final. This was not out of nowhere by any stretch, as he was able to win a Challenge Tour in August over Alex Merkx, which got him into a few of the late Pro Tour events, looking fairly decent, winning his opening game more often than not, and managing to win his board on his second attempt. This was added to by an Irish Open win in the WDF system last month where he beat McGuirk again, upcomer Jenson Walker, and finally veteran Ross Montgomery in the final. Vandebogaerde might be a tough ask, but it's not out of the question.
Joe's slipped down the rankings a fair bit and only just held onto a seeded spot, which is a surprise given that his overall numbers actually look pretty good, and also given that he started the Pro Tour season with a bang, opening with a final in the very first event before winning the fifth over Gian van Veen in a deciding leg. He'd have a bit of a quiet spell but prove it to be no fluke, adding a second deciding leg win in September, this time over Gerwyn Price. Outside of those two however, it's been slim pickings, with only a couple of final day appearances on the Euro Tour (where he was one of the last seeds and got relatively straightforward draws, only to lose in the last sixteen), and he has a solitary TV win at the Grand Prix over Wade all year. Numbers solid, but outside of the floor he's not really been able to make winning a habit, but he does have a tendency to show up here when you don't expect it.
Bradley's been one of the break out stars of 2025, with spoilers of what might be to come at Q-School, where he regained his card after a bit of a break with truly dominant performances and averages, albeit not winning a day outright. It was perhaps a surprisingly slow start to the season, taking until event 11 to get to a board final on the floor and losing his opening UK Open game to Jurjen van der Velde, but he would make a couple of Euro Tour events, get through to a floor quarter in mid season before getting a breakthrough senior win over Gerwyn Price in July. Brooks would follow this up with a semi final two events later and two further quarter finals, pushing him up to the point where he is close to Pro Tour seedings and maybe direct Euro Tour invites, although a quick start to 2026 may be required. Brooks easily dispatched Martin Lukeman at Minehead recently before surprisingly losing to Adam Lipscombe. Make no mistake - Brooks is in red hot form, and absolutely has enough game to beat Joe, maybe even ask questions of Luke should he get there.
Mensur has had a fairly steady 2025, after a poor 2023 where he didn't make the worlds and a consolidating 2024 where he was likely just happy to retain his tour card. His best game has clearly gone, but numbers just the tiniest fraction under 90 for the season are perfectly respectable. Results have not been fantastic - he didn't qualify for the Players Championship Finals having just got the one board win and a handful of board finals, but winning his opener more often than not, along with an OK European Tour campaign where he made five events and picked up four wins, was enough to see him among the middle of the pack of Pro Tour qualifiers. Suljovic had a nice little UK Open cameo with a win over Nathan Rafferty to get into the pot with the big boys, and would eliminate Luke Woodhouse to make the second day, where he'd be blown away by Willie O'Connor. Still not a bad player, but I think the peak is one and done here.
David returns having been the top ranked Canadian on the CDC circuit, finishing a huge distance ahead of his nearest challenger on that ranking. Cameron won two of the events on that circuit, and added a further three finals to book a return here after a year away. Cameron, who's had some success in the seniors circuit when that was still a thing, would also make it to the Continental Cup final in the CDC system, losing to Alex Spellman and unfortunately missing a Grand Slam spot as a result, and had some WDF success very early in the season by winning the Las Vegas Open. He's an experienced competitor, but that's not exactly going to help against Suljovic, and the statistics look to have tailed off somewhat in the last couple of seasons, so I don't think this one will be as close as it might have been a couple of years back, where I might even have made Cameron a favourite.
Overall, can't look past Luke. Mario and Mensur should both win their opening games but then lose the second. The question then is if Brooks can turn over Cullen - I want to say he can, but it'll be tight. Then the question is if either of them can get close to Luke. I think Bradley might have a bit more of a DGAF attitude and the higher peak game right now which is clearly going to need to show up to stand a chance, but I think that extra set that'd be needed in round three will be the insurance Luke would need if it got a bit twitchy. Winner - Luke Littler
Feels like it's been a relatively quiet year for Damon, and I think on TV it probably has really. He got to the quarters of the World Masters before running into Humphries, and would get a couple of wins at the UK Open prior to running into a rampant Gian van Veen (although Damon did at least force a deciding leg), but since then it's been a string of first round exits for The Heat, which, apart from the European Championship where he got eventual champion van Veen again, didn't really see him get horrible draws, and has seen him slide from a top 8 seed at Blackpool to barely in the top 16 here. The floor form has remained solid however - Damon picked up two Pro Tour titles to keep his ranking there steady, getting the first over Aspinall and the second over Bunting, but ideally he'd have liked to convert what was a very solid number of board wins (sixteen!) into more results, and overall do better on the Euro Tour, where he did reach one final (losing to Aspinall this time) but would lose his opening game more often than not. Heta clearly has the quality to get out of this, but it's not the nicest set of opponents he could get.
First would be Steve Lennon, who has been one of those players who has looked really good in terms of statistics, but just never really converted it into consistent results, going all the way back to getting to a Euro Tour final getting close to a decade ago now. He lost his card two years ago as a result and is probably going to lose it again, but at least has done enough this season to get to the worlds after missing out last season, the expanded format probably helping him being barely in the middle third of Pro Tour qualifiers. TV was basically a complete loss, losing in the prelims of the World Masters and getting an admittedly tough draw first up in the UK Open in Dom Taylor. A Pro Tour record of just one board win and five more board finals would see him miss a Minehead return, and a solitary pair of Euro Tour appearances didn't see him do too much there either, but in the second one of those he did at least make the last sixteen. And the seed he beat to do that? Damon Heta. Funny that.
Barney is still just about retaining relevance, having just dropped out of the top 32 in the world but retaining his place here through the expanded list of main ranking spots to 40, but would have been just fine through the Pro Tour regardless. On the Pro Tour, he played a surprisingly heavy schedule, although he reached just the one quarter final and only a further three board wins, all of which came before the Matchplay. He used the new Euro Tour rules to the fullest to play in all of them, but was out on the Friday more often than he made the Sunday, and in those Sundays he only pushed on to a solitary quarter final, and that was mainly thanks to a good draw (although, oddly enough, he did beat Damon Heta on the way). On TV, Barney was one of the first players to miss a bye to the opening evening of the UK Open, he did win that first game prior to losing a poor game against Dimitri, and would lose in the first round of the other three TV events he played - although if the easiest opponent is Gary Anderson, there is some mitigation for that. The stats are maybe the worst we've seen from RvB - they should be enough to break that TV losing streak, but he ought to be a dog in round two whoever he faces.
Stefan Bellmont returns for a second stab at this event, having been Switzerland's first player to make it in twelve months ago, losing comfortably to Jermaine Wattimena. Last year he came through one of the one off qualifiers, this year it is from the Challenge Tour, winning that to get a card for the first time for 26-27. On that Challenge Tour he got one win in the opening weekend over former Pro Tour winner Danny Jansen, added a second against Keegan Brown and a third in the penultimate event to secure the overall win and a Grand Slam debut, landing in a hard group but getting a win over James Wade at least. Stefan was in the UK Open but got a brutal draw against Beau Greaves, and that Challenge Tour success got him into the vast majority of Pro Tour events. Bellmont had a bit of a rough time there, losing in round one fairly frequently, but showed a glimpse of what he can do with an early surprise semi final run, knocking out Gerwyn Price and Josh Rock amongst others. He's gained a lot of experience these past two years, but the stats remain mediocre and he could be a bit out of his depth here.
Rob Cross is now eight years removed from his world title, and under a bit of pressure having dropped out of the top sixteen and defending semi final money at this event. It's been an up and down year on and off the oche, and it started alright with a World Series win in the Netherlands, a convincing win in the first Pro Tour of the season, and a tight win over Danny Noppert at the UK Open to get to the last sixteen, where he'd run into Josh Rock. However, for the rest of the year, he couldn't really get much going, with just the one semi final on the floor for the rest of the season over a truncated schedule, only one foray into the final session of the European Tour, and disappointing TV form, missing the Slam, losing first round in three of the remaining events to Dirk, Aspinall and most surprisingly Bialecki, only getting the one win (just) over Nijman in Leicester before going out to Cameron Menzies. His numbers are fine, if below his best, but results just haven't been coming.
Cor became the first Norwegian to gain a tour card at Q-School in January, and will make his debut here having crept into the field at the death, gaining one of the last slots on the Pro Tour ranking list, gaining two of his five board finals over the course of the year in the last four events to sneak over the line. That wouldn't likely be enough on its own, but he did have the bonus of a notable run on the European Tour in Switzerland, where he got all the way to the semi finals, albeit with multiple opponents gifting him quite a lot of easy legs. Luke Woodhouse would eventually stop him, but the money in the bank got him here. Cor didn't do a great deal on the SDC tour, finishing tenth on the rankings and going out in the quarters of the season end championship to Teemu Harju, while he wouldn't get out of the prelims at the Masters and get absolutely blitzed by Niko Springer in the first round of the UK Open. The good news is that he appears to be playing better stuff more recently, the bad news is the numbers are way off Rob's which leads me to think this might be a tad one sided.
White's a well known veteran at this stage, and while he is clearly some way off where he was at 6-7 years ago when he was playing and winning Euro Tour events, he is still showing more than enough to get here really comfortably and has pulled away from the danger zone he was in a couple of years ago in terms of retaining his card easily enough. His floor form has been a bit sporadic, losing in the opening round around half the time, but having a great spell around Easter time, reaching a first final in five years, going down in the final to Price, and following it up with a semi final just over a week later. That set him up nicely in the rankings to be safe for here, and would add four Euro Tour appearances, albeit with just the one win over Madars Razma. On TV, White couldn't get out of the prelims in the Masters, and while he made both Minehead events, he lost his first game to Adam Lipscombe and Scott Williams, averaging below 80 in that second one just recently. Not the sort of performance you want coming into a biggie like this.
Ian will play one of the few players still around with move experience than him in Mervyn King, Mervyn experiencing his first year without a tour card since he made his switch from the BDO. Despite some of the opportunities he thought he might have as a non-card holder, he's still done alright for himself, coming through as the last Challenge Tour qualifier by a small margin ahead of Michael Unterbuchner. King reached a final in the first weekend to give him an alright position in terms of Pro Tour call ups, before converting in May with a 5-0 final win over Henry Coates, adding a second final for that weekend a couple of days later. King would leave it late to secure his spot, but a semi final in the final event sees his return after two years away. King got into most of the Pro Tour events, not doing an enormous amount but he did pick up a couple of board wins, including a quarter final in Germany. The numbers are steady and fairly close to White's, I'd favour Ian slightly but this is a tight one.
As to who wins this section, I think Damon will have enough in rounds one and two, I think whoever comes through Heta/Lennon is better than Barney (who I can't see having problems with Bellmont), and I'm thinking that Steve might not have the confidence to get over the line. Cross should put away Cor easily, while White/King is one of the tougher matches to call in round one. I'd give Ian the slight edge, but I don't think either will trouble Cross either, although they might keep it tighter than Cor can. That leaves a 16 v 17 seed showdown and I think I just have to go with Rob's slightly better scoring numbers, although this is one that might go either way (and that I probably called the other way in the instant reaction stream, come to think of it). Winner - Rob Cross
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