13/09/2023

Darting dilemma as PDC bans players from competing at both WDF Lakeside World Championship and Ally Pally

The PDC has informed the WDF that players who qualified for the World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace will not be allowed to compete in the WDF World Championship at Lakeside.

For players without a PDC Tour Card, it is possible to qualify for both World Championships through a variety of routes. However, the PDC wants to retain their players qualified exclusively for their tournament. The measure applies to men's, women's, and youth players. In the past, an exception was still made for women, but this has now been scrapped.

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This measure currently affects Beau Greaves, Luke Littler, and Berry van Peer. Greaves has led the WDF women's rankings for many years and is also the current reigning WDF Women's World Champion who is most affected by this news. However, she also qualified for the PDC World Darts Championship by winning the Women's World Matchplay in July.

Van Peer is on the verge of qualifying for the PDC World Darts Championship via the PDC Challenge Tour. However, the Dutchman is also currently claiming entry to Lakeside in Frimley Green via the reserve list so also needs to make a decision in the event of winning the Challenge Tour.

Luke Littler has secured qualification for Ally Pally via the PDC Development Tour and is also virtually qualified for the WDF World Championship via the WDF Ranking.

So the trio must start choosing which world championship they want to participate in. Littler has already indicated that he wants to play at Alexandra Palace with a Tour Card also secured for the 16-year-old, while Van Peer is likely to make that choice as well. Greaves in particular will be the main topic of debate surrounding her choice.

This is mainly due to Greaves' initial resistance to play PDC Women's Series and also recently declining an invite to play World Youth Championship and instead compete in Sweden on the WDF Tour. A side to the game that she has put a lot of time into in recent years.

Players such as Ben Robb could also add to the dilemma if he qualifies for the PDC World Darts Championship. He leads the DPNZ, with a play-off needed for the showpiece tournament which he will be the favorite to win.