Feels like it's been a very up and down year for Bunting, who despite having probably the best scoring year of his career, as well as breaking new ground by winning a first and second European Tour title, has not really threatened to take a television title following last season's worlds semi final. Those Euro Tours came in Riesa early in the season and Basel later on, defeating Aspinall and Woodhouse respectively, and were long overdue, and were two of four ranking titles Bunting won this year, picking up a pair of Pro Tour wins as well, those being over Jermaine Wattimena and Jonny Clayton, leaving him fractionally behind Gerwyn Price at the top of the Pro Tour standings. However, TV (outside of a couple of World Series wins) was fairly disappointing, and that's if we ignore a disastrous Premier League return where it took him half the season to even register a single win. Two quarter finals is not the return he would have wanted, narrowly going out to Noppert in the Masters and falling behind early and never recovering against Clayton in Blackpool, and the remainder was worse. Dobey first up at the UK Open is a tough draw, same story in Dortmund, but Noppert again in the second round in Leicester and then Gurney at Minehead are those you'd feel were winnable, and the less said about the Grand Slam the better, finishing with a hat trick of 4-5 defeats in a group you feel he should have easily won, or at least qualified from. A good season lower down, and definitely a good season statistically, but TV form must be a concern.
Bialecki returns after a two year absence for a second crack at this event. There, he lost a narrow opening game against Jim Williams having won the eastern European qualifier, here he is in through the Pro Tour, having finally won a tour card through the Development Tour in 2024. We've seen him for a few years now, notably having a big UK Open run once, but he's adapted to the senior circuit well, getting a strong run of five board wins in seven events early in the season on the Pro Tour to give him a firm foundation in getting here, before surprising pretty much everyone soon after the Matchplay by actually winning one. Wins over Woodhouse, Menzies, van Veen and Noppert prior to taking out Niels Zonneveld in the final show it wasn't a cakewalk. Later results would see form tail off a tad, and he had somewhat of a disappointing return in terms of the Euro Tour where he qualified for just a solitary event in which he was comfortably beaten by Pietreczko in the opening round. He did still play the Dev Tour and win the first event, but maybe would have liked more than one final apart from that, while TV wasn't bad - getting a couple of scrappy wins at the UK Open prior to a third round loss to Luke Woodhouse, then notably beating Rob Cross at the Players Championship Finals, before playing alright but just winning the one leg against Price in round two. Still a bit inconsistent, but has certainly shown enough that he's very much someone that is for the now, not just for the future.
Veenstra it feels as if has had a so-so season, never really in danger of not retaining his card having first won it at the start of 2023, but not really showing any sort of progression in terms of pushing up towards the top 32 or threatening to go on some sort of TV run, go deep on the floor, that sort of thing. The Pro Tour was very up and down - three quarter finals is OK I guess, the third being part of a spell in the last eight events where he also won his board three times, but he did end up with an overall losing record in opening round games, the result of which was that he barely qualified for Minehead. Yes, he did beat Wessel Nijman just about, which nobody really saw coming, but then lost in a whitewash to Aspinall in round two. Richard showed a decent record of getting to European Tour events, playing in six across the season, but it should be noted that more than half the time it was as an alternate player having not initially qualified, and he didn't make the final day once with three first round exits and three second round defeats - one of which was when he replaced a seed and didn't even need to win in the first round. Add on losing his opening UK Open game to Mario Vandenbogaerde, and the stage has not been kind to him, and if we look back twelve months his exit from here and the manner of it was not pretty either. Still solid, but it feels as if there's a ceiling as to what he can do on the PDC circuit right now.
Nitin returns here for a fifth attempt, having won the Indian qualifier which never makes any sense to me, but he seemingly did enough. Held over three events, he lost in the final of the first, the quarters of the second but won the last one, but the averages were not pretty in the slightest, only breaking the 80 mark occasionally and only threatening the 90 mark once, albeit two of the three best performances were when it counted, and the strength of the field has probably dragged his numbers down somewhat, given nobody else apart from Kumar even averaged 70 across the events. Kumar's previous attempts have not gone well, he did finally win a set last time out in a not terrible showing against Martin Lukeman, but that's the only one. We did see him at the World Cup, but the Indian team were comfortably beaten in both games, and he has played some Asian Tour, reaching one semi final and getting into the Asian Championship, where he beat one of the lesser known Philippines players but losing to former card holder Christian Perez in a winner takes all clash. He's not completely out of his depth at this level, but I can't think of any draw he could have got where he would be in the same ballpark as his opponent given how the draw works.
Dirk's had a really good season statistically, and is perhaps a tad underrated given his ranking, part of which is down to historic missed time which is only now being rectified. The Pro Tour was pretty darned steady, getting through to one final where he averaged over a ton in a 15 leg clash against Chris Dobey, and made the quarters or better on three other occasions, while on the Euro Tour he got fairly close to winning his first event right at the end of the season, coming out a narrow 8-6 second best against Nathan Aspinall. Dirk had a fairly solid record in Europe outside of that, getting to the final day four times and generally not making a mess of getting up to the seeded player. On TV, it's been hit and miss - he'd want a loss to William Borland at the Masters back, got a real awkward draw in the UK Open against MvG, coming close but not quite getting there, Noppert in the first round at Dortmund isn't the hardest draw but one you think he might have got closer in, while losing to Madars Razma at the PC Finals was not ideal. However, he did come from behind to beat Cross at Blackpool (but would then lose to Andrew Gilding), and made the quarters in Leicester, avenging that defeat to MvG then winning 3-0 against Daryl Gurney, but would then just win one leg in a reverse to Jonny Clayton at the quarter final stage. This is a false ranking, he's better than 29th in the world, only defending first match money here and nothing at the Matchplay or Grand Prix should rectify things.
Andy Baetens came over from the WDF just under two years ago as their world champion and with a lot of expectations as to what he might be able to do in the PDC system, with most observers thinking he's a clear top 64 player, if not higher. To say he's been underwhelming would probably be an understatement, as Baetens did not qualify for the worlds last year and, even with the expanded field, did not qualify outright this year either, leaving him well short of the mark to retain his card which most thought would be a minimum expectation. He did however have a regional qualifier or the PDPA qualifier as backup, and it's the former he won to get here, taking the Netherlands/Belgian qualifier to make his debut on this stage. Andy beat fellow card holder Martijn Dragt, former card holder Ron Meulenkamp and then WDF number 1 Jimmy van Schie to book his place here. As said, he needed this due to poor form on the floor. He made just the single European Tour event, where to be fair he beat Barney then Cross prior to losing to Anderson in a high quality game, but in the Pro Tour he had a peak run of round four, both times in Germany where the field is usually a bit weaker. That left him well short of the PC Finals, but he did get to the main draw of the Masters, although there he drew Littler, but would lose heavily to Cam Crabtree in the UK Open. There's a player in here, we've just not seen it much the last two years.
James Hurrell moved over to the PDC at the same time as Baetens, having also had successes in the WDF system, albeit not to the same extent as Andy. However, he has adapted better, making this event last year where he beat Jim Long for the loss of just one leg prior to a straight sets loss to Michael van Gerwen, and his return here through the Pro Tour sees him what looks like ending up on the right side of the top 64 cutoff to keep his card for 2026. His form has been a bit up and down - only a single European Tour appearance and you can't blame him for losing to Gian van Veen whilst there, and barely having a winning record in first round games on the Pro Tour. He was however able to put some runs together, barely missing out on a final right before the Matchplay, losing out 7-6 to Bradley Brooks in the semis, and in Hildesheim a couple of months later he'd narrowly lose one round earlier, again to eventual champion Joe Cullen. This would be just about enough to book a Minehead slot - earlier in the season he lost his first UK Open game to Darren Beveridge, but in the Players Championship Finals Hurrell would get what could be a couple of key victories, eliminating Jonny Clayton and Luke Woodhouse fairly comfortably prior to going down 10-5 to Chris Dobey. One win here should make his tour card absolutely safe, and he should be favoured to get it.
Stowe Buntz will be back for a third go here, having first broken onto our consciousness just over two years ago with that Grand Slam quarter final, he still seeks his first set win on the Ally Pally stage having been whitewashed by Kevin Doets and Nick Kenny these past two years. Buntz, always an entertaining figure, makes it here being the top ranked player in the CDC rankings after the top American and Canadian were already given their spots. He's a bit fortunate to get the call up, as the qualifying spot only occurred after Matt Campbell was ineligible to take the spot he won from the North American Championship, but he's here. That third place spot was off the back of a solid season where he won four CDC events, and he made a further three finals showing solid form through the season. In the other CDC knockouts, Stowe lost to Canadians every time (Jeff Smith, Matt Campbell, David Cameron), so couldn't book a Slam return or a direct spot here. He did play the US World Series event and looked OK in giving Luke Humphries a decent game, while he has played some WDF events, winning a silver ranked one in Florida in the summer as well as going fairly deep in three others. A steady player with big upside, he won't be without his chances.
Think this one comes down to the seeds, who are the clear best two players in this pod. Bunting and Veenstra probably win the openers in straight sets before Stephen gets to round three likely without much fuss. Dirk could easily be pressured by Baetens, and James could see the same from Buntz, but I think both the first two players make it, and then DvD likely has an easier second round game regardless. The actual winner will likely be tighter than the seedings suggest - Dirk seems to be in the better form and the numbers aren't that dissimilar, I'll take Bunting to move on but this could be legitimately close and an under the radar game of the tournament contender at its best. Winner - Stephen Bunting
Schindler will make his seventh appearance on this stage, looking to be able to make an impression really for the first time, having yet to progress beyond the third round and having lost in straight sets to Callan Rydz in his first game twelve months ago. The season has generally been good, making a decent impression at all levels and rising into the top sixteen prior to this event. On the floor, Schindler won a Pro Tour event for the first time (of course, already having a Euro Tour or two in the bank), winning a one-sided final against Jeffrey de Graaf without having to show too much in terms of scoring power to do so. He'd perhaps liked to have added a bit more, with just another three events where he made the last eight or better, but he made very few early round mistakes to show a lot of consistency to his game. A third Euro Tour title was added in Austria, beating Chris Dobey, Josh Rock then Ross Smith in the final session, which is already a fairly rare feat, and Martin had just the single tournament on that tour where he lost his opening game. On TV, Schindler was close to making the final day of the UK Open, losing to Jonny Clayton at the last sixteen stage, who would also beat him in Blackpool, while Ratajski would cause a small upset in Leicester. Martin did however get a first win (yes, really) at the European Championship over Dave Chisnall, progress to the Grand Slam knockout stage for the first time, and match a best run at the PC Finals, losing out to Gerwyn Price on both occasions. The next stage is a really deep TV run, and what better place than here to do it?
Stephen Burton has been around the PDC scene for nearly a decade now, but stands just the wrong side of the tour card cutoff as of right now, so will need a win here (or some combination of resignations and really favourable results) to retain it. That's mainly down to a mediocre season - he did enough on the Pro Tour last year to qualify, only for what could be a costly opening loss to Alex Merkx, but this year was not so friendly, needing to qualify through the PDPA qualifier, which Stephen did fairly comfortably with a solid win over Adam Paxton prior to beating the Dutch pair of Marvin van Velzen and Jitse van der Wal 7-5, finishing with an average just shy of 98 in that final. While the Euro Tour qualifying has been made much harder (and worse obviously), you'd have thought someone of Burton's quality would get to at least one, but he didn't (and he was only one game away on a single occasion). The Pro Tour wasn't much better, he was at least winning his opener more often than not, but only won his board once all year and had way too many second round exits, resulting in missing the Players Championship Finals. Burton did have a nice UK Open cameo, getting favourable third/fourth round draws against a qualifier then Radek Szaganski prior to going out to Gian van Veen, who he gave a decent enough game against, but that, outside of getting here through the back door, is maybe the only real bright spot of a season where, looking at the numbers, I'm not sure there's much of an argument that he could have got more out of it.
Keane Barry by contrast did creep into the Pro Tour positions, without which he'd probably be looking at Q-School to regain his card. It's a seventh straight appearance, but it was looking a touch unlikely for quite some time, as Keane needed to come from behind somewhat to book his spot. He couldn't rely on any meaningful European Tour assistance, as he only made the one event all year, which happened to be the last one, and given maybe the hardest first round draw on that circuit right now in Jermaine Wattimena, he couldn't get more than the minimum money. So, with a start to the season which saw just four first round wins in the first fourteen events, only one of which was taken to a board final, it'd need to be the latter part of the season where he'd do his work. He did finally get a couple of board wins either side of the Matchplay, and extend that run to four in seven soon after, and a last event run was the best of the season, getting to the quarter final stage to make things absolutely sure with qualification still not certain prior to that run. He was too high up in the rankings to play the Dev Tour, and didn't do too much on TV - the World Cup was alright but that was pairs, and while he did play both Minehead events, he'd lose to Jurjen van der Velde (hmm, OK) and then Chris Dobey (which is fair enough), while in the Masters losing to Ratajski is understandable enough. I'm not sure if he's a top 64 player right now, and it's not a case of saying he's lacking in senior experience at this stage.
Tim Pusey, he of the second best banned nickname in darts, will make his PDC worlds debut having won the inaugural ADA circuit. The Magnet, for it is he, overcame what was a flying start by Raymond Smith to win three of the last six events, which coupled with four further finals, was just about enough to close and eventually overhaul the gap, although I believe he was reliant on Brody Klinge defeating Smith in a last leg of the last final to make it certain. That ADA tour win got him into the Premier League thing that Whitlock won, where he'd do enough to reach the finals night only to lose to Smith again, while he'd also pick up three DPA finals in one weekend, turning two of them into victories. Tim did play in the Australian leg of the World Series, losing out to Chris Dobey in a moderately tight game, while he's seemingly not touched the WDF circuit. The numbers he's putting up are not convincing, but Keane's lost to worse players in this event before, so who knows?
Ryan is back here for an eighth consecutive appearance, and will be looking as a minimum to continue a streak which has seen him reach at least the third round on every occasion. It's been a year that I'd probably describe as par for the course overall. On the Pro Tour, Searle was just fine, reaching a semi final in the opening weekend and taking one to the hoop in the second, a win tally that'd be doubled towards the end of the season when he denied Mario Vandenbogaerde a first title. That prize money saw him finish just outside the top ten in Pro Tour money, and he played to his seeding at Minehead, losing in the last sixteen to Jermaine Wattimena. It's perhaps surprising that Searle still does not have a Euro Tour title, indeed prior to the end of last season he didn't even have a final, and he wasn't really close to changing that in 2025. Two quarter finals were the best he could do, and he was not in the final day more often than he was in it. Sure, on a lot of occasions he would either be unseeded, or in the lower end of the seeds and hence face a tough last sixteen opponent a lot (of the four times he lost in round three, in three of them he got each of the top three seeds here), but you'd like maybe a little bit more. This got him to Dortmund where he did win a game, but then got van Veen in round two. Elsewhere on TV, it was mainly tough draws - getting Humphries once, Littler once, Price once, and it was only really against Jonny Clayton that you could say he went out to someone that isn't clearly better. This isn't a horrible section of the draw, so maybe he can get something going and push back to the top 16.
Chris Landman is a former finalist in the WDF worlds, and makes his third appearance here following a win in a regional qualifier a few years ago and being one of the last few Pro Tour players in last year. That's how he got here this year as well, so while he has made the worlds both years he's held a tour card, he's going to need to put a run together to keep it following a first round loss to Lee Lok Yin twelve months ago. Chris couldn't get a huge amount going on the floor, taking until PC10 to even make a board final, then for the next twenty events he'd do a little bit better but have as many first round losses as wins. A good last four events got him over the line however - he got to a quarter final in event 31, and another board win on the final weekend would be just what he needed to stay the right side of the qualifying line. Landman made a pair of Euro Tours, and did probably about as much as he could have - beating Gilding before losing to Ross Smith in the first, then beating a domestic qualifier prior to losing to Stephen Bunting. Can't do a whole lot more there. The majors were basically a complete blank - not getting through his group at the Masters, while at the UK Open both him and Christian Kist were averaging a fairly pedestrian number, but Kist won six legs to Landman's one which is what counts. Clearly not a bad player, just one that I don't think has shown enough to say he ought to stick on the PDC circuit, or truly pressure his opponent here.
Dolan has just about hung around in the top 40 in the world to qualify here direct through the order of merit, but after a career which has seen him in the top 32, slide out, claw his way back and stay there for several seasons, Brendan, defending quarter final money, might be sliding lower over the next twelve months. The best we saw from Dolan was clearly on the floor - rarely making a mistake in the opening round, and taking three events very deep. A semi final in March and a further one in September were nice, but were bettered by a final in Hildesheim in May. Granted, he didn't win a leg against Ross Smith when he got there, but he still needed to get there, and the results would have been enough for him to qualify for here through the Pro Tour if the criteria worked the same as last year. At levels above that, it's been more or less entirely misses. Northern Ireland won the World Cup for the first time, just as Dolan wasn't in the team for the first time. European Tour excursions were limited to just the two showings, one in Leverkusen where he lost to Wessel Nijman, and another in Prague where he lost to Jermaine Wattimena, so not exactly easy draws. Dolan finished in the top 32 seeds for the Players Championship Finals but lost to compatriot Daryl Gurney in the opening round, he lost his opening Masters game to Nick Kenny, and just about held a ranking high enough for a bye to round four of the UK Open, where Danny Lauby defeated him 10-9. There's still signs on the floor that he's alright, and the numbers are OK, but I'm not sure any rise in his level of play or results seems realistic going forward.
Tavis Dudeney is a name that's familiar to a few people, although probably more for what he did in the WDF rather than the PDC oddly enough, in that he was frequently the guy on the other end of final defeats at youth level as the Luke Littler hype train was really starting to gain steam. Tavis did win a tour card directly on day 3 of Q-School, which I thought might be a bit too much progression too quickly potentially, and unfortunately that's kind of turned out to be the case. Dudeney's had a staggering 26 first round defeats at Pro Tour level, ironically the last of which was against his first round opponent here, and only on one occasion where he did get a win did he not immediately lose his next match, where he did win his board to be fair. Worryingly, the better results were early in the year, and outside of wins over the German pair of Pietreczko and Clemens, he's not won a match on the Pro Tour since April. He didn't qualify for any of the European Tour events and lost the first game twelve times (and the second game the other two times), and he wasn't able to do too much elsewhere either. Still able to play the Dev Tour, he made only one semi final and two quarters all season - that did just about get him into the top 32 and he came out of his group at the world youth, but just scraped a win in the first knockout round before going out to Liam Maendl-Lawrance. In what major events he did play, he went 1-1 in his group at the Masters which wasn't enough, while he lost his first UK Open game to Graham Hall. It's been a rough season, and I can only hope it's not created too much of a dent in confidence.
Seems like another easy seed against seed call. Neither seed should have anything to fear in round one, while the other two "seeded" players look like they should both have more than enough to handle their opponents, but not enough to trouble the true seeds, although maybe Dolan could keep it somewhat interesting just through his experience. The Schindler/Searle potential matchup is really intriguing and tight to call (if it happens), I think I'll go with the Englishman just based on better overall numbers and record here, but I can't see too much to separate the pair. Winner - Ryan Searle
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