Eleven years in and Red Dragon’s Champion of Champions still does exactly what it set out to do. Take players from packed social clubs and pubs and put them on a stage that means something more.
This year’s instalment which culminated in Connor Hopkins’ all-Wales final win over Jeff Bass at The Depot in Cardiff, was another reminder of why the event remains the flagship of the amateur calendar, and why it continued to matter beyond the trophy itself.
Getting to Finals Day meant surviving 256 qualifying events across the UK and Ireland, a genuinely enormous operation before a dart was thrown in Cardiff.
That number alone is worth sitting with. It’s not a tournament that starts with a seeded draw and a TV deal; it starts in venues like Eastleigh Working Men’s Club and Nantyffylon Non-Political Club, with 30-odd entrants and a single spot on offer.
Every one of the 256 players who walked into The Depot had already won something to be there. That’s the appeal Red Dragon leans on every year and it’s structurally true of the format.
The headline addition for 2026 was the extra prize on offer, alongside the familiar £10,000. Paid Q-School entry and £500 towards travel and accommodation, while Hopkins also picked up a place in the preliminary round of the 2027 Winmau World Masters.
The latter has a sensible safeguard built in, in that the spot passes to the runner-up if the winner earns a tour card through Q-School first.
The link to the PDC system is a meaningful step up in what the tournament can offer a champion, tightening the pathway link between grassroots and professional darts that Red Dragon has always pitched this event on. Given previous winners include Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton, that pathway claim carries some actual weight.
The showpiece event had contrasting stories built into it. Bass’ route to the final was the story of the day in isolation. Through the bottom half of the draw having dropped just a single leg between the last 64 and the final, then sweeping past Graham Brooks 2-0 in the semis.
Hopkins’ path was scrappier, and in the end, more battle-tested. A tight last-four win over Taylor Richards that needed the standout performance of the day, a 106.64 average to get over the line.That contrast showed in the final, as Hopkins closed it out 2-1 averaging 98.79 in the decider to deny Bass what would have been a fairytale run.
What Champions of Champions does well, and did again this year, is resist becoming just a prize-money story. £32,500 across the day is significant for amateur darts, but the value most players and organisers talk about is the validation.
Proof that hours in a quiet pub corner translate into something that counts on a bigger stage, even briefly.
Eleven years on, that’s still the pitch, and Finals Day at The Depot backed it up again. The genuine jeopardy built into the best-of-three format and a final that came down to who could hold their nerve better in a decider, not who’d had the smoother run to that point.
For an event that’s now firmly established as the UK’s leading grassroots tournament, that’s about as healthy a state as it could be heading into a 12th year.
Images: Red Dragon
