DartsNews Podcast | “I don’t think he actually is a dark horse” – Wessel Nijman heads World Matchplay danger list with Woodhouse and Ratajski

Luke Littler and Luke Humphries will take plenty of the attention in Blackpool, but the 2026 World Matchplay draw has danger scattered well beyond the obvious title favourites.

Wessel Nijman arrives with one of the strongest form cases in the field. Luke Woodhouse heads to the Winter Gardens in the best spell of his career. Krzysztof Ratajski has timed his own surge almost perfectly after winning the European Darts Open.

Nijman faces Dave Chisnall with expectation rising fast, Woodhouse gets Josh Rock in one of the standout first-round ties, and Ratajski opens against Gian van Veen after beating him only recently.

Speaking on the latest episode of the DartsNews Podcast, Kieran Wood and Nicolas Gayer discussed the players below the headline favourites who could still shape the tournament before the final weekend.

Nijman was one of the more difficult names to place in the discussion. Wood had initially considered him as a possible dark horse, only to talk himself out of the label because of just how strong the Dutchman’s 2026 has already been.

“I am confident that this is when he’s going to show Euro Tour, floor Wessel Nijman on the big stage,” Wood said. “I initially thought about putting him as my dark horse, but he’s been so good in 2026 that I don’t think he actually is a dark horse in this tournament, even though he’s never got to a major quarter-final.”

Nijman’s six Players Championship titles and two European Tour titles this year have made him one of the form names of the season, but the proper TV-major run is still missing.

Wood also felt the Winter Gardens could be the right stage for that step. Nijman already has a positive memory in Blackpool, having beaten Nathan Aspinall there last year with a 102 average. “He’s got good memories from the stage as well,” Wood said. “If any tournament is going to ignite the real Wessel Nijman on TV, I think it could be this one.”

Gayer also picked Nijman as his player with the most to prove, while admitting the contradiction in putting that pressure on someone still so early in his PDC career. “I’ve personally picked Wessel Nijman because we always talk about the fact that he has got so much to prove on the big stage,” Gayer said. “I’m always the one saying, come on, keep it cool a bit, because he’s so young, he’s only in his third year as a Tour Card holder. How much can he have to prove?”

Nijman’s season has changed the answer. His floor results, Euro Tour success and position near the top of the ProTour picture have made him harder to judge by normal development timelines.

“With the season he has played so far and with the fact that he probably is top three players in the world right now if you just talk about current form and what players have won already in 2026, he has to prove that he can at least go to the later stages of this tournament,” Gayer continued. “He doesn’t have to win the Matchplay, of course he doesn’t have to make the final, but I think with this season, with everything he’s won on the ProTour, with all those Players Championship successes, with winning on the Euro Tour multiple times, sitting on top of the ProTour Order of Merit, dominating that ranking like nobody else does right now, heading to Blackpool he really does have to prove that he can at least be a factor in the later stages of the tournament.”

Chisnall makes the opener awkward. He has deep Matchplay experience and enough scoring power to make any draw uncomfortable, but he also arrives after having to battle his way into the field during a difficult period.

Wood agreed with Gayer that there is no need to rush the wider judgement on Nijman, but felt the scale of his 2026 form means the major-stage pressure will keep building if the wait goes on.

“You mentioned his age there and the fact that he’s only in his third year, so there’s no rush,” Wood said. “But I could actually turn that back around and say the fact that he is doing so well off these TV events and on the ProTour and European Tour, the longer the wait goes on for a TV run, the more that pressure is going to build.”

Wood’s own dark-horse pick was Woodhouse, despite a first-round draw against Rock that could hardly be described as kind. Rock is seeded eighth and still has one of the highest ceilings in the field, but Woodhouse has built a proper 2026 case of his own. After years of near misses, he won his first PDC title at Players Championship 18 in Leicester, added a first European Tour crown at the Baltic Sea Darts Open, and then reached another Players Championship final in July.

“I’ve got the one on my list that caught my eye, Luke Woodhouse,” Wood said. “He’s obviously been in the form of his life in 2026, winning titles for the first time, reached the final literally just the other day losing to your man Clemens.”

The Rock draw was also part of the appeal. Rock’s best level remains dangerous for anyone, but his 2026 form has had enough swings to make the tie feel live if Woodhouse carries his recent standard into Blackpool.

“I think the fact he has Josh Rock in the opening round, obviously Josh Rock is a high-quality player, semi-finalist last year, and I just feel like his form has been a little bit hit and miss in 2026,” Wood said. “There’s an opportunity there for Woodhouse if he does carry on this career-best form.”

Gayer backed the pick, partly because Woodhouse’s game and demeanour make him an interesting watch when he is flowing. “I have to say that I really like watching Luke Woodhouse,” Gayer said. “I like his throw, I like his chilled demeanour, and I think he also showed at the World Championship when Damon Heta hit that nine-darter and he went completely nuts, he showed what kind of character he is.”

Wood also pointed to one of the changes behind Woodhouse’s improved results. “One sort of major criticism of Woodhouse is the fact that sometimes, if he’s losing, he’ll just throw his dart,” Wood said. “But I don’t think it’s a coincidence, the fact that he started doing that a lot less now and he’s started getting a lot more successful.”

Gayer agreed. “I always feel like when I watch Woody that he would love to throw like that, just bang, in a quick rhythm,” he said. “But not everyone is able to do that. I think he’s really good off doing that a lot less.”

Gayer went in a different direction with his dark-horse pick, selecting Ratajski to cause problems in the section that opens with Van Veen. The original podcast case was based on the draw, Ratajski’s experience and his previous Blackpool run. Since then, the argument has only strengthened, with Ratajski winning the European Darts Open and beating Van Veen during that same title run.

“I always feel like dark horse is a bit of the wrong description for him because he’s been playing at the top of the game for 10 years now,” Gayer said. “But looking at the draw, looking at the fact that he’s not seeded, he’s one of the ProTour qualifiers, and looking at who he’s playing in the first round, I think Krzysztof Ratajski will beat Gian van Veen, the number three in the world and world finalist, and will then go on a good run in Blackpool, where he already reached the semi-finals in 2021.”

Ratajski’s 2021 run took him past Brendan Dolan, Luke Humphries and Callan Rydz before he lost to Dimitri Van den Bergh. Van Veen will rightly be expected to have a major say in the tournament, but Ratajski has already shown this year that the opener is not just dangerous on paper.

“For a real dark-horse run, you do need one of those big wins,” Gayer added. “Even though Gian has had his obvious issues and hasn’t been in the form of his life, I still think he’s the number three in the world, he’s the favourite to win that game. If Krzysztof manages to put him out in the first round, I think that would be one of those headline wins that could really spur on such a dark-horse run.”

Nijman faces Chisnall with expectation rising fast, Woodhouse has the form to trouble Rock, and Ratajski has already shown Van Veen this year what he can do.

Littler and Humphries may dominate the title conversation, but the first few nights in Blackpool could easily be shaped by the players sitting just beneath that top line. If the draw starts bending early, Nijman, Woodhouse and Ratajski are exactly the kind of names capable of doing the damage.