Draw released for Players Championship 9: Smith to face Anderson, Van Barneveld set for Aspinall clash

The draw has been released ahead of the ninth Players Championship which is due to begin in an hour in Barnsley.

In the first round, the top ties include Michael Smith facing Gary Anderson and Raymond van Barneveld taking on Nathan Aspinall.

Gerwyn Price will receive a bye as the top seed with the full compliment of Tour Card holders not taking part from the initial entry list but with it being a three day weekend, that gap will likely be filled tomorrow.

Michael van Gerwen, Peter Wright, Joe Cullen and Jonny Clayton are among those involved though from the very first round.

An amount of £100,000 in prize money will be distributed at each Players Championship tournament. The winner of the event will receive a check for £12,000.

Gerwyn Price (BYE)

Geert Nentjes v Luke Woodhouse

Madars Razma v Keane Barry

Jason Lowe v Nick Fullwell

Brendan Dolan v Jason Heaver

Ricky Evans v Scott Waites

Martin Schindler v Scott Mitchell

Jake Jones v Mario Vandenbogaerde

Dimitri van den Bergh v John Brown

Tony Martinez v Glen Durrant

Dave Chisnall v Luc Peters

Ritchie Edhouse v Peter Hudson

Damon Heta v Steve Lennon

Darius Labanauskas v Adam Hunt

Kim Huybrechts v Ryan Meikle

Ron Meulenkamp v Kevin Doets

Peter Wright v David Evans

Darren Webster v Jon Worsley

Mervyn King v William O'Connor

Radek Szaganski v Danny Jansen

Krzysztof Ratajski v Jose Justicia

Steve Beaton v Jeff Smith

James Wade v Jamie Hughes

Matt Campbell v Jermaine Wattimena

Joe Cullen v Darren Penhall

Adam Gawlas v Steve West

Callan Rydz v Jules van Dongen

Shaun Wilkinson v Brett Claydon

Dirk van Duijvenbode v Josh Rock

Brian Raman v Danny Baggish

Chris Dobey v Mickey Mansell

William Borland v Ryan Joyce

Michael van Gerwen v Jimmy Hendriks

Ted Evetts v John Michael

Simon Whitlock v Mike de Decker

Martin Lukeman v Maik Kuivenhoven

Jonny Clayton v Jim Williams

Berry van Peer v Ross Montgomery

Stephen Bunting v Richie Burnett

Damian Mol v Devon Petersen

Michael Smith v Gary Anderson

Boris Krcmar v Cameron Menzies

Gabriel Clemens v Rusty-Jake Rodriguez

Max Hopp v Alan Soutar

Ryan Searle v Eddie Lovely

Ricardo Pietreczko v Rowby-John Rodriguez

Danny Noppert v Gordon Mathers

Bradley Brooks v Jeffrey de Zwaan

Jose de Sousa v Ian White

Vincent van der Voort v Niels Zonneveld

Martijn Kleermaker v Steve Haggerty

Graham Hall v Kevin Burness

Daryl Gurney v Andy Boulton

Geert de Vos v John O'Shea

Nathan Aspinall v Raymond van Barneveld

Joe Murnan v Vladimir Andersen

Rob Cross v Florian Hempel

George Killington v Nathan Rafferty

Adrian Lewis v Zoran Lerchbacher

Keegan Brown v Connor Scutt

Luke Humphries v Jack Main

Michael Unterbuchner v Krzysztof Kciuk

Ross Smith v Andrew Gilding

John Henderson v Lewy Williams