Beyond the polished silverware and headline triumphs, the PDC Pro Tour remains gloriously unpredictable – a theatre where reputations are rattled and scorelines routinely defy expectation. It rarely fails to manufacture eyebrow-arching moments, and once again it delivered a portfolio of subplots every bit as compelling as the climax itself.
Wigan resumed its role as the epicentre of tungsten turbulence as the sport’s travelling aristocracy reconvened within the familiar confines of Robin Park for the second chapter of this season’s Players Championship double-header. Yet what unfolded was anything but a stately procession. Instead, it resembled competitive insurrection – established hierarchies unsettled, assumptions dismantled, and volatility reigning supreme from the very first dart.
Spectators scarcely had time to settle before the first genuine shockwave ricocheted around the venue. It took only a smattering of matches for the afternoon’s initial seismic tremor to send ripples across the venue. Multiple PDC major champion Gerwyn Price was abruptly ejected at the very first hurdle, dismantled 6-2 by Adam Lipscombe in a result that sent murmurs rippling through Robin Park. Absolutely no slur on the man nicknamed Baby Boy, just that most pundits probably had that down as a Welsh win.
Statistically, there was little to separate the pair – both orbiting the early-90 average corridor – yet the margins in professional darts are rarely numerical alone. Lipscombe, still in the formative infancy of his professional voyage, exhibited the sharper composure and more clinical incision at the pivotal junctures. While Price searched for rhythm, the Englishman seized it, puncturing the contest with decisive finishing and unflinching nerve. In a sport where hesitation is fatal, it was the newcomer who operated with veteran ruthlessness.
If that result raised shocked, Dimitri Van den Bergh’s latest instalment of struggle deepened concern. The Dreammaker’s protracted malaise shows little sign of abating, the Belgian whitewashed by Karel Sedlacek with an average languishing below 77.
For a former UK Open and World Matchplay champion, the optics are stark. The trapdoor to tour-card jeopardy does not slam shut out of sentimentality. It creaks. And currently, it is creaking ominously. Without rediscovery of rhythm and resilience, the bright lights of televised majors may instead become the unforgiving examination hall of Q-School in Kalkar come early 2026.
Amid the turbulence, Niels Zonneveld (Pictured) delivered statistical splendour, registering just shy of 106 in a 6-3 dismissal of Rhys Griffin – the highest average of the opening round. Keane Barry and Ryan Meikle both breached the ton barrier yet still exited, casualties of Michael Smith and Canada’s Jim Long respectively. A cruel arithmetic: excellence does not guarantee endurance.
Raymond van Barneveld, afforded more latitude in ranking security than Van den Bergh, will nonetheless be vexed by a sub-80 performance in defeat to Cristo Reyes. The Spaniard scarcely ignited fireworks, yet efficiency proved sufficient.
Elsewhere, the casualty list lengthened. A quartet of those to have tasted PDC major success in Ross Smith, Mike De Decker, Joe Cullen and Peter Wright all departed before the afternoon had properly matured. The early exits of such decorated names underscored the Pro Tour’s merciless parity.
Round two compounded the volatility. Gian van Veen fell to Daryl Pilgrim. Michael Smith and Daryl Gurney joined him in premature departure. Luke Humphries succumbed to Ritchie Edhouse, while Nathan Aspinall’s campaign was curtailed by Bradley Brooks.
Those absent by choice – Littler, Van Gerwen and Anderson – were spared the carnage. The remainder who survived to the last 16 could consider it a commendable achievement in this crucible of condensed-format chaos. Tomorrow’s qualifiers promise more disorder. And almost certainly more drama.
—–ENDS—–
Images: PDC
