Our regular lighthearted look at who’s hot, and who’s not, in world darts. Success often comes in waves. Players seem to come from nowhere, suddenly move up a level or even dramatically collapse. In many cases, the signs were there if you’d known where to look.
This time we look at the first quarter of 2026:
Bullseyes
Luke Littler: The Nuke has started a season like few others before him. To claim both early season majors, straight off the back of retaining the Ally Pally trophy is legacy building stuff.
Mitchell Lawrie: Wee Sox has a stunning start to the 2026/27 season he has claimed adult and youth level events across Europe and hit his first accredited 9-dart leg and all at the age of just 15!
Wessel Nijman: The Dutchman has added another notch to his belt with a first European Tour title and is looking more and more comfortable on stage and off. Don’t forget that Wessel had a stellar record against young master Littler on the Development Tour…
Krzysztof Ratajski: The Polish Eagle’s return after illness and something of a slump is good for the game all around. Quarter finals at the World and then the UK open together with some impressive off camera efforts indicate its no flash in the pan either.
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Gemma Hayter: The Gem has stretched her wings a great deal over the past year or so. But the recent spell of WDF event wins and other late stage appearances and a Lakeside qualification show a burgeoning professional career taking impressive shape.
Bounce-Outs
Joe Cullen: The Rockstar is having one of his decidedly mediocre spells. In truth they come because Joe is not conventional in the darting sense and everything needs to be firing for him to truly shine. Darts fans look forward to the usual reignition of the Cullen afterburners!
Matthias Ehlers: The German’s tour card looks like a case of ‘too much too soon’. Nine consecutive first match losses, in PDC events, stretching back to March 2025 cannot be easy to shoulder. Yet, he has talent and recently won 4 games at a home nation qualifier.
Steve Beaton: The Bronzed Adonis has had little luck since deciding to step back from the top tier grind of the PDC. The halting of the World Seniors and a few late stage near misses has meant that, despite still throwing impressively, Steve is trapped between two stools.
Raymond van Barneveld: Barney is struggling and no amount of protest or dispute will change it. Not only is he losing a high % of games, but he is losing them badly and to those not playing particularly well. How long will the legendary Dutchman wish that to carry on?
WDF Europe: The moving of the World Masters to Las Vegas may be a fabulous long term development for darts. The development of the North American market has always been something of a holy grail. But it means that the experiment of hosting prestigious majors in continental Europe seems to have failed.
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Originally published in DartsWorld Extra 24
