16 players, including Jamie Lewis, Christian Perez and Benito Van de Pas, secured their places through to the Final Stage of their respective Q Schools on Monday, after coming through Day One of Stage One, as the PDC’s Annual Qualifying School began in Milton Keynes and Kalkar, Germany.
The last two years has seen the PDC expand its Qualifying School into two stages, with Final Stage consisting of players who recently lost their Tour Cards and players who finished 2nd-8th on both the Challenge & Development Tour Order of Merit from the previous year.
UK Q School
2018 PDC World Championship Semi Finalist, Jamie Lewis, headlined the eight players to come through Day One of Stage One at UK Q School, as the Welshman bids to win back his Tour Card, after recording victories over Lewis Dare, Adam Smith-Neale, Adam Warner, Thomas Lovely and Chris Gilliland, dropping just 12 legs along the way.
Philippines’ star Christian Perez, who competed at the most recent PDC World Championship, also secured his place into the Final Stage, as he bids to win a Tour Card for the first time in his career, after picking up five victories along the way, including a victory over 2x PDC ranking title winner Josh Payne in the final round.
Elsewhere, Former Tour Card Holders Peter Jacques, Jim Walker and Lee Palfreyman also progressed through to the Final Stage, as they bid to win back their Tour Cards once more, with the remaining three qualifiers in Darryl Pilgrim, Dylan Slevin and Dale Gadsby all look to win Tour Cards for the first time in their careers during the Final Stage, commencing this Thursday.
European Q School
3x PDC ranking title winner, Benito Van de Pas, headlined the eight players to come through Day One of Stage One at European Q School, with the Dutchman bidding to win back his Tour Card, as he recorded victories over Kilian Schmutz, Jeremy Van der Winkel, Udo Lercher, Jacob Taylor, Markus Kessler and Jamie Lawrence.
Former Dutch Open winner Richard Veenstra and Germany’s Niko Springer also were high profile names to secure their place into the Final Stage, as they both bid to win Tour Cards for the first time in their careers.
The five remaining players to progress through included Poland’s Tytus Kanik, Dutch duo Arjan Konterman and Jimmy Van Schie, Germany’s Daniel Zygla and Czech Republic’s Tomas Houdek, with Kanik being the only player to have held a Tour Card previously in his career.
PDC Q School continues on Tuesday, in the UK and in Europe, with a further 16 players progressing through to the Final Stage, with play commencing in Europe at 10:00 CET and in the UK at 10:00 GMT. All live scores and results can be viewed at tv.dartconnect.com.
UK Q School
Stage One Day One- Monday 9th January
Last 16
Dylan Slevin 5-4 James Howard Hughes
Peter Jacques 5-4 James Richardson
Christian Perez 5-1 Josh Payne
Lee Palfreyman 5-3 Scott Baker
Jamie Lewis 5-2 Chris Gilliland
Jim Walker 5-2 James Hurrell
Dale Gadsby 5-3 Chris Quantock
Darryl Pilgrim 5-3 Matthew Dennant
European Q School
Stage One Day One
Last 16
Tytus Kanik 5-2 Francois Schweyen
Tomas Houdek 5-2 Daniel Klose
Arjan Konterman 5-4 Roemer Mooijman
Benito Van de Pas 5-4 Jamie Lawrence
Niko Springer 5-1 Ricardo Perez
Daniel Zygla 5-2 Marc Vleghert
Richard Veenstra 5-4 Davyd Venken
Jimmy Van Schie 5-1 Marcel Hausotter
—–Ends—–
Images: PDC
