Winmau World Masters Qualifiers | Wright, Michael Smith, Van den Bergh and Greaves all miss out as Van Schie, Nijman and McGuirk qualify

The Winmau World Masters qualifiers took place on Wednesday January 28 with eight players joining the leading lights in the main draw tomorrow led by Jimmy van Schie, Shane McGuirk and Wessel Nijman. Albeit many big names missed out.

Van Schie was utterly brilliant all day as he won through his group in his first tournament as a PDC Tour Card holder after winning his Tour Card and leaving the WDF system as their World Champion. He saw off Ritchie Edhouse 3-1 in his Last 64 tie.

He followed that up with victory over Richard Veenstra in the Last 32 producing a guilt edge 138 to complete it with the duo producing an epic contest before he saw off Showman Scott Williams to seal the deal. He now faces Ross Smith.

Shane McGuirk will take on Nathan Aspinall after the Irish Arrow who won Lakeside two years ago who is also making his main tour debut saw off Scott Waites 3-1 in the last match with his victories including Keane Barry in an all Irish affair.

Wessel Nijman will face reigning finalist Jonny Clayton after taking down Gabriel Clemens in the final 3-1 and is perhaps the main big name through with many falling by the wayside early on. James Hurrell also continued his incredible last few months which saw him star at the PDC World Darts Championship. He saw off Alan Soutar 3-1 who vanquished Beau Greaves and he will face Gerwyn Price in the first round.

Niels Zonneveld faces Gary Anderson after he thrashed Kim Huybrechts 3-1 in his final game. While Jeffrey de Graaf was one of the most impressive seeing off Jack Tweddell to be the first through averaging 98. He faces Stephen Bunting.

Finally Connor Scutt and Madars Razma booked their spots. Scutt faces Josh Rock while Madars Razma gets James Wade. They saw off Krzysztof Ratajski who seemed at one point to continue his great form and be a dead cert but he lost to Razma while Scutt took down Graham Hall.

Some players such as Mervyn King did not make it past the Group Stage as it was a bit cut throat with Kim Huybrechts among others only needing one win to get through their group. While others needed three but in terms of the main event and who missed out, it was most of the big names that had entered into the event.

Peter Wright will miss the Masters for the first time ever after he was defeated narrowly by Graham Hall in his first match. Rhys Griffin paid heed to Michael Smith who has been signalling all the right noises that he is getting back to some semblance of his best but he won't be playing any further part this weekend in Milton Keynes.

Beau Greaves and Dimitri van den Bergh too as well as Joe Cullen were all casualties albeit they all lost in the latter stages. Greaves was defeated by Alan Soutar in the penultimate round, Cullen was only stopped by a 111 average by James Hurrell while Van den Bergh was beaten after going a set up by on off friend/enemy and World Cup teammate till this year in Kim Huybrechts. All three though like Wright and Smith won't join the likes of Littler, Humphries, Van Veen and Van Gerwen tomorrow though.

All those winning through go on to the first round proper tomorrow where they will play on stage against the big names. For the others, it is ProTour action instead in a week or so to begin their year.