DartsNews Podcast | “The field feels like it’s shifting” – Peter Wright, Michael Smith and Dimitri Van den Bergh missing as new World Matchplay era takes shape

The 2026 World Matchplay will begin with a very different feel in Blackpool. Luke Littler returns as defending champion and Luke Humphries arrives as one of his most obvious challengers, but several players with deep Winter Gardens history will not be there at all.

Peter Wright, Michael Smith and Dimitri Van den Bergh are the headline absentees from this year's field, with Daryl Gurney and Raymond van Barneveld also missing out. Between them, that group includes former champions, finalists, semi-finalists and long-time Matchplay regulars.

Speaking on the latest episode of the DartsNews Podcast, Nicolas Gayer summed up the feeling around this year's lineup. "The field just, if you look at it, feels like it's shifting a bit," he said. "We are missing some big names."

Wright's absence is one of the clearest signs of that shift. The Scot won the World Matchplay in 2021, beating Van den Bergh 18-9 in the final, having already reached the 2017 final against Phil Taylor and the semi-finals again in 2018.

For much of the last decade, Wright was one of the names expected to shape the business end of Blackpool. This year, the two-time world champion is outside the field altogether.

Asked whether Wright would ever return to the Winter Gardens, Kieran Wood admitted he struggled to see a route back for the 56-year-old. "I can't see that happening again unless the World Seniors comes back and plays a tournament," Wood said. "He's in a bit of a career freefall at the moment, which is not great to see."

Gayer, who interviewed Wright at the European Tour in Graz earlier this year, noted that the Scot was still projecting confidence despite his results failing to follow. Wright had spoken then about making the Matchplay, winning Players Championship titles and even becoming world champion again.

Wood suggested the tone around those predictions now feels different. "Back in the day, I think he said it because he believed it," he said. "But nowadays I think he's almost saying it to try and believe it."

Wood agreed that the list of absentees had several obvious standouts. "You've got the obvious ones," he said. "You've got the Michael Smith, the Peter Wright, even ones like Daryl Gurney who've been regulars in recent years."

Smith has been a fixture in the Matchplay conversation for years. The former world champion reached the 2019 final, losing to Rob Cross, and also made the semi-finals in 2020 and 2024. He was a quarter-finalist in 2021 too, but there will be no Blackpool return this summer.

Van den Bergh's omission is another major one in Matchplay terms. The Belgian won the title in 2020, reached the final again in 2021 and made the semi-finals in 2022. He was also a quarter-finalist as recently as 2024, when he hit a nine-darter against Martin Schindler before losing to eventual champion Humphries.

Gurney has also had plenty of good nights at the Winter Gardens. The Northern Irishman reached the semi-finals in both 2017 and 2019, and was back in the quarter-finals in 2023 after wins over Rob Cross and Gary Anderson. After five straight Matchplay appearances from 2021 to 2025, he is absent this time.

Van Barneveld's deepest Blackpool run came further back, but his name still carries weight at the event. The Dutch legend reached the 2010 final and hit a nine-darter during that year's tournament against Denis Ovens. More recently, he had made the field in 2023, 2024 and 2025 before dropping out for 2026.

Wright, Smith, Van den Bergh, Gurney and Van Barneveld have all had proper Blackpool nights. None will be part of the opening weekend this time.

Wood also picked out Beau Greaves as the player he would most have liked to see make it, despite the size of the task after only a short spell on the ProTour. "It was a big ask for her to get in just over six months on the Pro Tour, but I don't think it would have been a crazy thing if she had done it," he said. "Next year, you expect she'll be here."

Gayer made a similar point about Cristo Reyes, another player who came close after returning to the tour. "I personally would have loved to see Cristo Reyes, which is pretty much the same story, because he also only had six months to do the whole job and he got really close as well," he said.

Greaves and Reyes are not in this year's field, but both reached the final stretch of the race quickly enough to make their names part of the wider Blackpool conversation. For Wright, Smith, Van den Bergh, Gurney and Van Barneveld, the picture is far less encouraging: years of Matchplay pedigree have not been enough to get them back to the Winter Gardens.