ANALYSIS - From Luke Littler's likely challenger to NHS area manager: Assessing four Welsh players present at 2026 PDC World Darts Championship

The 2026 PDC World Darts Championship kicks off on Thursday night at the Alexandra Palace with four Welshmen qualifying for the biggest month of the year led by leading duo Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton.

The number of Welshman has halved this year, which is very surprising considering the expansion to a 128-player field. Before looking ahead to this year's fixtures, it is worth looking at last year's World Championship. There were an impressive six Welshmen last year, including all three of this year's qualifiers. Only one qualifier failed to win their first game, with Jim Williams falling short against Paolo Nebrida in a 3-2 loss. Rhys Griffin then exited in Round 2, in a 3-0 thumping from Josh Rock. 

Nick Kenny, who has qualified this year, made it to the last 32 in 2024, but couldn't get past World No.1 at the time, Luke Humphries, who averaged just shy of 99 in a 4-0 win. Both Jonny Clayton and Robert Owen reached the last 16, but unfortunately, Clayton ran into fellow Welshman Gerwyn Price, who progressed to the Quarter-Final, while Owen lost to Rydz 4-3.  Below is an early look ahead at Wales's four representatives at the upcoming World Darts Championship.  

Last year would've been a disappointing one for Gerwyn Price, falling short in the Quarter-Finals to Chris Dobey, a game where he had missed opportunities. The former World Champion has had an outstanding season this year, picking up six PDC titles, including the Baltic Sea Darts Open and the Poland Darts Masters. Price has picked up £511,000 over the last two seasons.

Price reached the semi-finals of the Players Championship final in the last tournament, losing 11-8 to the eventual winner Luke Littler. Before that, he also reached the semi-finals of the Grand Slam, losing 16-13 to Luke Humphries. This performance proved Price is still one of the best players in the world and will most definitely be a contender for the title come January. 

At Ally Pally, the 'Iceman' will take on Adam Gawlas, a game you'd expect him to win. In Round Two, Price would face the winner of Lukas Wenig and Wesley Plaisier. A likely Third Round match-up would put him up against Ryan Joyce, if he makes it past Owen Bates in the first round. 

Winning the first few rounds looks fairly simple for Price. A third-round meeting with Joyce would be a real test with the finishing ability of Joyce, but it is one Price can definitely win.

The 'Ferret' Jonny Clayton has been one of the most consistent players in the world over the past few years and has continued that in 2025. Clayton is ranked 5th in the World at the moment and after a shock exit in the group stages of the Grand Slam, will want to bounce back, going deep into the World Championship.

The 51-year-old had a somewhat disappointing run last year at the Worlds, falling short to his World Cup teammate Gerywn Price, losing 4-2. Clayton kicked on from this in 2025, picking up one Players Championship title alongside the Dutch Darts Championship where he defeated Niko Springer in an 8-6 thriller.

Clayton will be hoping to go even deeper into the Worlds this year, with a first-round match-up with Adam Lipscombe, a game that could prove tough for the 'Ferret.' If Clayton is to progress, he will most likely face Dom Taylor in round two and then Michael Smith in Round three.

Nick Kenny is the penultimate Welshman to qualify for this year, alongside the World Cup duo of Price and Clayton and the final player. Kenny currently ranks 57th in the World. It was a successful World Championship for Kenny last year, as he reached the last 32, defeating the likes of Raymond van Barneveld along the way.

Kenny has had an interesting year, qualifying for the Players Championship final and making it to round three. The Welshman also failed to qualify for the Grand Slam of Darts, losing in a qualifier to Richard Veenstra who averaged over 102.

This will be Kenny's fourth appearance at the Worlds, qualifying in 2021, 2022 and 2025. Kenny takes on Justin Hood in the first round in a very winnable game. If he progresses he will most likely face Danny Noppert who has been one of the best players on tour in the last few months.

David Davies is the final qualifier and perhaps the best story of all. The NHS area manager from Denbigh qualified through the UK and Ireland qualifying tournament at the start of November.

He has been playing Challenge Tour as well as MODUS Super Series this year winning an event on the former too. He defeated former WDF World Champion Shane McGuirk in the final 7-4 of the qualifier averaging over 97.

He also won the cutthroat Champion of Champions which is played over a short News of the World type format bringing that back into the public domain through Red Dragon and is often an event due to this that big names enter in and don't thrive.

But this proved a catalyst for Davies for a big six months when he realised he could play at the top level and he gets to do as his fellow darting star from Denbigh in Mark Webster did and adorn the big stage. Webster no doubt will be there in the commentary box for it as he faces Mario Vandenbogaerde.

Predicting him to shock Vandenbogaerde but he runs into Littler likely second round so very unlikely to win there.

Robert Owen, Jim Williams and Rhys Griffin all missed out despite qualifying last year, and Owen reaching the last 16 on an impressive run.