DRAW PDC Players Championship 31: Race to Minehead heats up as Michael van Gerwen headlines in Den Bosch
PDC
The draw for Players Championship 31 has been made. A total of 128 players will compete at the Maaspoort in Den Bosch on Wednesday afternoon. With just four floor tournaments remaining, plenty is still at stake for several players as they chase qualification for the Players Championship Finals.
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Tough draw for Van Barneveld
Raymond van Barneveld is one of those with work to do. 'Barney' currently sits 84th in the Players Championship Order of Merit and needs to make up £6,000 on current 64th-placed Mike De Decker. A strong start today would therefore be welcome. First, however, he must get past Cameron Menzies, a challenging draw for the Dutchman.
Michael van Gerwen begins his Wednesday campaign against Englishman Joe Hunt, who recently won on the Challenge Tour to secure a Tour Card for next year. Wessel Nijman, currently top of the floor rankings, opens against fellow Dutchman Stef Kosters.
Elsewhere, qualification for the Finals looks out of reach for Dimitri van den Bergh. The two Belgian sits 118th, so would need a miracle to break into the top 64. To start that unlikely push, he must first beat Kevin Burness today.
Another notable player to watch is Nathan Aspinall. The current world number nine is only 74th in the rankings and still has several places to make up. He begins his bid for a strong result today against fellow Englishman Carl Sneyd.
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Players Championship 31 draw
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| Player 1 | vs | Player 2 |
| Wessel Nijman | vs | Stef Kosters |
| Tommy Morris | vs | Sietse Lap |
| Gabriel Clemens | vs | Viktor Tingstrom |
| Daniel Klose | vs | Lewis Pride |
| Dirk van Duijvenbode | vs | Mervyn King |
| Lukas Wenig | vs | Mario Vandenbogaerde |
| Cameron Menzies | vs | Raymond van Barneveld |
| Nathan Potter | vs | Tytus Kanik |
| Andrew Gilding | vs | Brendan Dolan |
| Jurjen van der Velde | vs | Tyler Thorpe |
| Martin Schindler | vs | Max Hopp |
| Oskar Lukasiak | vs | Marvin Kraft |
| Gian van Veen | vs | Connor Scutt |
| Jim Long | vs | Matthias Ehlers |
| Jeffrey de Graaf | vs | Jeffrey de Zwaan |
| Adam Gawlas | vs | Arno Merk |
| Jermaine Wattimena | vs | Henry Coates |
| Greg Ritchie | vs | Owen Bates |
| Maik Kuivenhoven | vs | Filip Bereza |
| Pero Ljubic | vs | Darius Labanauskas |
| Damon Heta | vs | Ritchie Edhouse |
| Alexander Merkx | vs | Ricky Evans |
| Dave Chisnall | vs | Tavis Dudeney |
| Rob Owen | vs | Adam Paxton |
| Danny Noppert | vs | Adam Warner |
| Kevin Burness | vs | Dimitri Van den Bergh |
| Richard Veenstra | vs | Andy Boulton |
| Nick Kenny | vs | Ricardo Pietreczko |
| James Wade | vs | Scott Waites |
| Peter Wright | vs | Stephen Burton |
| Niko Springer | vs | Stefaan Henderyck |
| Madars Razma | vs | Mike De Decker |
| Kevin Doets | vs | Stefan Bellmont |
| Darryl Pilgrim | vs | Samuel Price |
| Mickey Mansell | vs | Shane McGuirk |
| Christian Kist | vs | Rhys Griffin |
| Michael van Gerwen | vs | Joe Hunt |
| Marvin van Velzen | vs | Tom Sykes |
| Cristo Reyes | vs | Cor Dekker |
| Gilbert van der Meijden | vs | Cam Crabtree |
| Niels Zonneveld | vs | Steve Lennon |
| Niall Culleton | vs | Maximilian Czerwinski |
| Beau Greaves | vs | Adam Lipscombe |
| Thibault Tricole | vs | Thomas Lovely |
| William O'Connor | vs | Scott Williams |
| Bradley Brooks | vs | Dan Hands |
| Joe Cullen | vs | Wesley Plaisier |
| Patrik Williams | vs | Keane Barry |
| Chris Dobey | vs | Callan Rydz |
| James Hurrell | vs | Ian White |
| Michael Smith | vs | Jimmy van Schie |
| Levy Frauenfelder | vs | Dominik Gruellich |
| Karel Sedlacek | vs | Charlie Manby |
| Tommy Lishman | vs | Dennie Olde Kalter |
| Sebastian Bialecki | vs | Martijn Dragt |
| Leon Weber | vs | Adam Leek |
| Krzysztof Ratajski | vs | Mensur Suljovic |
| Chris Landman | vs | Ryan Meikle |
| Daryl Gurney | vs | Alan Soutar |
| Stephen Rosney | vs | Jeffrey Sparidaans |
| Nathan Aspinall | vs | Carl Sneyd |
| James Beeton | vs | Tom Bissell |
| Kim Huybrechts | vs | Justin Hood |
| David Sharp | vs | Benjamin Pratnemer |
Kieran WoodDarts Journalist
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He contributes to DartsNews.com, where he covers professional darts through news, match reports, analysis, and live coverage across the PDC calendar and major tournaments.
A key part of his work is on-site reporting from leading events. Kieran has covered the PDC World Darts Championship in person, reporting daily from the venue and providing first-hand insight from the tournament. During his coverage, he has conducted interviews with leading players including Luke Littler, Luke Humphries, and Gerwyn Price.
He is also one of the leading voices of the English-language Dartsnews Podcast, contributing regular analysis and discussion on developments across the professional darts circuit.
In his reporting, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles when new, verified information becomes available.
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- And yet the PDC has decided to aggravate this problem by doubling the Players Championship Finals field from 2027. I can't imagine there will be fewer withdrawals next year with even less reason to turn up. I can only hope that a whole slew of Challenge Tour top-up players receive enough prize money in the absence of much of the elite, that some of the more complacent among them struggle to scrape into even a heavily diluted field! More semi-pro players will get to test their mettle, but the standard of competition will be much inferior. It could hardly be said that the Players Championship series will provide an opportunity for darts' second string to test their Tour Card credentials anymore, but at least it will underscore the achievements of those Challenge Tour players of current and previous years, who were able to prove themselves as more than capable of competing with, and beating, the elite of the sport on a consistent basis, and reaping the due rewards.Deduce635828-10-2026
- No point in being there? Champions want to win.Deduce635828-10-2026
- Littler lost to crabtree in the youth/junior/whatever you call it. He had no point in being there. He's unfortunately now got to the stage,he feels all he has to do is get on the stage to win. Well,I hope he realises part of his fear factor has gone. Happened to Taylor,then van gerwen,and it's causing him to realise pretty sharp,he isn't unstoppable. It's good for the sport,not 1 single player in my 60 years has ever,or will ever be, unbeatable.rick6725-10-2026
- I think it's great to see Mark Webster looking good,good ladrick6725-10-2026
- I agree,I can't believe the lack of coverage of this sad loss. Always enjoyed watching him,but I guess now it's all about littler,well it seems that way. Darts has sadly lost a good manrick6717-10-2026
- In the absence of a report regarding the death of Stefan Lord, I'll assist. An excellent player in the late 70s and early 80s, he actually won the now defunct 3rd place match at two World Championships and a couple of the News of the World Championships. A fabulous player and easily the best Swedish player ever. Rest peacefully Stefan.richieburnettrocks16-10-2026
- Joking aside, it is the second most watched sport on sky (more than golf, F1 etc) behind football only, and in participation is second to only football and swimming. It doesn't get the attention or sponsorship of "bigger" sports because it's not as sexy, but it's right up there.BandB13-10-2026
- i love darts but you can't seriously believe it's the second most popular sport in the uk. even top five is pushing it. it may be the fastest growing, though.colt13-10-2026
- I'm a big Clayton fan, but he's got this completely wrong. Qualification criteria exists for a reason - so just as failing to make the top 32/64 for the Euro championships/PT Finals means you miss out, so does not lifting a title for this one.26sForFun12-10-2026
- The players who deliberately slow the game down are usually boring and win very little in the way of silverware. Horrible to watch.MrYnyslas197112-10-2026
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