DISCUSSION | Players Championship 19 and 20: Withdrawals from ProTour events a positive thing as Gary Anderson's form questioned

We have two contrasting winners in Players Championship 19 and 20. The unlikely Jeffrey de Graaf and the inform Ross Smith both came away with the coveted titles after a very solid day’s work in Milton Keynes with a number of storylines being written along the way.

De Graaf struck late in the day to defeat Jonny Clayton 8-5 to double his PDC ranking title number. He defeated some big names along the way including Wessel Nijman and Josh Rock to taste glory.

The next day, Smith bossed it. Aside from averaging over 108 in the early rounds, he produced a scintillating 107.01 average while pinning 73% of his doubles in a triumphant 8-5 win against William O’Connor. But as the topic of withdrawals from these events become a prominent topic, do these big names missing make these tournaments better or worse?

Lucas Michael, Editor for DartsNews.com, argued against the concerns over top players withdrawing from ProTour events as well as assessing Ross Smith's major title chances.

Another brace of Players Championship events have come and gone, but the main story of the day may be focused on not who was competing, but who was not.

The average of Players Championship 20 was 90.93. Just three were lower throughout this campaign, and two of them were in Germany where you would expect the bigger names to pull out. This was in Milton Keynes, England. No Luke Littler, Luke Humphries, Michael van Gerwen, James Wade, Gerwyn Price and Stephen Bunting may paint a concerning picture for some.

For me, the chances of Jeffrey de Graaf becoming a Players Championship champion once more would have been a whole lot more unlikely if they turned up. The Swede is not by any stretch the only example. Last year alone we had players like Sebastian Bialecki, Bradley Brooks and de Graaf win unlikely titles with Dennie Olde Kalter, Jelle Klaasen Mario Vandenbogaerde, Dominik Gruellich and Adam Lipscombe reach finals.

Adding to all of that, these Premier League players are not super human. Now the Premier League is complete, the World Series and possibly European Tour may take priority while for the most part their qualification for Minehead is very much safe.

Well, for most of them. Gian van Veen has lost in the opening round of the prior three floor events with his best result coming at PC15, losing at the fourth round. These abysmal results, including some skipped weeks, leaves him 106th in the race to Minehead. Only 64 players qualify and he has some work to do not to follow in the footsteps of van Gerwen last year. Josh Rock and Nathan Aspinall also remain outside with Peter Wright, Raymond van Barneveld and Dimitri Van de Bergh not sure about appearing in the Players Championship Finals.

149 players have competed this year, before this event only three had yet to earn any money, Finally Oskar Lukasiak clinched his first wins of the campaign, but at the foot of the table sits Pero Ljubic and Littler. The two-time world champion has not played in any of the first 20 events with just 14 remaining. How long will it be before he finally sees him on the floor? He is taking a huge risk. Flashbacks to when he was late for an event in Wigan last year do not make for pretty reading. He needs to get back competing and winning. Two or three deep runs and he is back in Minehead defending his title, but it could very easily go wrong.

Now for the winners of PC19 and 20. De Graaf came out of the blue. He did not average over 100 for the whole day before competing against Jonny Clayton in the final. He left the best to last with a brilliant scoring session that powered his way past ‘The Ferret.’ Still no PDC ranking title in 2026 for Clayton is slightly concerning although more of a pest than a problem. For the Swede, his World Matchplay hopes are in tact although highly unrealistic unless he can possibly go really deep in another of these events. His timing was spot on, just the consistency added to it, and he will be a huge threat.

There is not much more to discuss about Ross Smith. Now a 10th PDC ranking title. The thing which most impressed me was his ability to come back from a couple low-90 averages and pull out a 107 average in the final, again emphasising on timing. I sense a deep run in a major tournament for ‘Smudger’ in the near future, and if everything clicks then a title? He has the game for it, just needs to showcase it.n

Mats Leering, Editor for DartsNieuws.com, highlighted the unexpected runs of lower ranked players in the latter stages of these floor tournaments.

With several top players absent, Milton Keynes seemed the perfect setting for surprises in this two-leg tie. And that’s exactly what we saw.

Jeffrey de Graaf’s title win, in particular, came out of the blue. Especially when you consider all the players he defeated on his way to the final victory. Josh Rock, Wessel Nijman, Luke Woodhouse and Jonny Clayton were all added to his list of conquests. An impressive list of names for the Dutch Swede, who claimed his second PC title and made a significant leap up the OOM rankings. Furthermore, this could be a major confidence boost ahead of the World Cup of Darts, where he will represent Sweden alongside Oskar Lukasiak next week.

The second day saw a less surprising winner in Ross Smith. In the absence of the top players, he was one of the names I had expected might potentially claim a title this week. The surprises that day, however, lay in the names that managed to go far.

Richard Veenstra reached the semi-finals, meaning the Dutchman made a strong case for himself in a single day with a view to the Players Championship Finals. The 19-year-old talent Henry Coates also reached the semi-finals. Unfortunately, William O’Connor was unable to win his final against Smith. Had he won, it would have been his first PDC title since 2019, and I would have been delighted for the Irishman.

The conclusion from this weekend is that, with the top players absent, anyone can win a floor title. Jeffrey de Graaf certainly proved that to me again this weekend.

Pieter Verbeek, Editor for DartsNieuws.com, focused on the Dutch contingent competing in Milton Keynes, highlighting Richard Veenstra's impressive run and the impact of that Jeffrey de Graaf title in terms of upcoming major events.

Out of nowhere, Jeffrey de Graaf once again managed to claim a Players Championship title on Tuesday, repeating the feat he achieved last year. Remarkably, at every other ProTour event this season, De Graaf had failed to progress beyond the last 32. This time, however, everything clicked for the Swedish-Dutch thrower, and he immediately went on to lift the title. It was an impressive triumph, but also an extremely valuable one. Thanks to the prize money earned with the victory, De Graaf no longer has any concerns regarding his Tour Card status. In addition, qualification for both the Players Championship Finals and the PDC World Darts Championship now looks secured, while a place at the Grand Slam of Darts could also be within reach.

Wednesday’s title went to Ross Smith, who collected the ninth ranking title of his PDC career. It marked his third title of the year, further strengthening the growing résumé of ‘Smudger’. Of course, his European Championship triumph from 2022 still stands out as the biggest achievement of his career, but beyond that, the Englishman has yet to make a major breakthrough on the televised majors. Should Smith manage to translate his floor form onto the big stage more consistently, a return to the world’s top 10 appears only a matter of time.

Several of the well-known Dutch names disappointed in Milton Keynes. Gian van Veen suffered two first-round exits, while Wessel Nijman could only point to a quarter-final as his best result of the week. Danny Noppert reached the last 16 once, while Dirk van Duijvenbode managed just a single victory across the two tournaments. Jermaine Wattimena also failed to make a real impact, with two wins his best return. Perhaps the biggest surprise came from Kevin Doets. One of the revelations of the season was eliminated in the opening round on both days. Of course, that can happen in the relentless Players Championship circuit.

One Dutchman who did impress was Richard Veenstra. After reaching the third round on Tuesday, he followed it up with a semi-final appearance at Players Championship 20 on Wednesday. Those results mean Veenstra is now effectively safe regarding qualification for the Players Championship Finals, the World Championship, and his Tour Card for 2027.

Nicolas Gayer, Editor for DartsNews.DE, analysed Gary Anderson's 2026 camaign and why he is not hitting the levels fans expect.

Two more Players Championship events are in the books, and the PDC Pro Tour remains as unpredictable as ever this season. While the European Tour continues to produce new winners almost every week, the floor circuit has now delivered another surprise champion in Jeffrey de Graaf.

What makes the story particularly interesting is that, prior to Tuesday, De Graaf had not progressed beyond a board final — the third round of a floor event — a single time this season. You would expect the latter stages of a tournament to feel like unfamiliar territory after such a long absence, but that was certainly not the case. De Graaf impressed throughout his run to the title and capped it off with a superb performance in the final, averaging 101 and defeating Jonny Clayton 8–5.

A day later, the trophy found its way back to a more familiar destination. Ross Smith continued his outstanding season by claiming his third title of the year. Smith, who recently crowned himself a European Tour champion for the first time and has now won titles at every level of the PDC game — Major, European Tour, and Floor — looks, in this form, like a player who will have a significant say in the outcome of the upcoming major tournaments.

Another Englishman who impressed me during this Pro Tour week was Rob Cross. “Voltage” seems to be edging closer and closer to his best form and has been producing excellent darts for several weeks now. At Players Championship 19, he reached the semi-finals, where he was beaten by Jonny Clayton despite averaging a superb 105. Just a week and a half earlier, Cross had also reached the semi-finals on the European Tour in Riesa. Across his last 20 matches, he has produced seven averages above 100 and has dipped below the 90 mark only once. Voltage is steadily gathering momentum.

Finally, I would like to focus on a player that I always keep a very close eye on: Gary Anderson. Anderson, who over the last three years treated us to some of the best darts of his career, has struggled to find his rhythm in 2026 — at least by his own standards. In his last four Players Championship appearances, he has suffered two first-round exits, lost in round three on Tuesday, and was eliminated in round two on Wednesday. In both defeats this week, he failed to average more than 89 and 87 respectively.

To me, the reason seems fairly obvious: a lack of match practice. Anderson rediscovered a level of form in recent years that very few people thought was still possible. Was it a coincidence that this resurgence coincided with him falling back in love with Players Championship events and returning to the European Tour — something that had seemed unthinkable for years? I do not think so.

And that is precisely where I see the issue this year: Anderson simply is not playing enough. Of the first eight European Tour events of the season, he has entered only two — and has yet to record a win. On the floor, “The Flying Scotsman” has also withdrawn from eight of the first twenty events.

Travel fatigue, frustration with the new dartboards, renewed injury concerns — I do not know. What I do know is that I hope we will soon be able to enjoy one of the greatest darts players of all time on a more regular basis once again.