Players Championship Order of Merit update after event 33: Luke Humphries in the danger zone for PC Finals with just one tournament to play

The penultimate Players Championship tournament is over and Thursday afternoon players will get a last chance to qualify for the Players Championship Finals later this month. While most of the top players have long since been assured of participation in the final tournament, some still have a lot of work to do on the last day of play.

The Players Championship Finals are the absolute climax of the Players Championship season. The tournament is not only the denouement of the 34 floor tournaments played, but also the final showdown before the World Darts Championship gets underway. The top 64 players on the Players Championship Order of Merit secure a spot in the final tournament.

One of those players who cannot afford an early elimination tomorrow is current world No. 1 Luke Humphries. 'Cool Hand Luke' surprisingly went down in the first round against Adam Warner on Wednesday afternoon, which means he is now only 58th on the Order of Merit. With a lead of only 2,000 pounds, a loss in the first round tomorrow afternoon could well have major consequences. Although several players below him would then have to win two games, the former world champion would not want to run that risk. With one or two wins tomorrow, though, Humphries is sure to participate in the final tournament.

Where Humphries did not do himself a good service today, Peter Wright managed to play himself safe. Prior to this afternoon's tournament, 'Snakebite' was in 55th place and was not yet sure of qualifying for the PC Finals. Unlike Humphries, however, the Scot managed to reach the last 16 today, moving up to 48th place and securing himself a place in the final tournament.

Chris Dobey after winning the title jumped up from 9th to 6th adding £15k to his total while Gerwyn Price also extended his lead pretty comfortably. Wessel Nijman adding £5k by reaching the latter stages also sees him close in on Stephen Bunting who fell down to Number 7 on the Order of Merit.

Among the other main movers today included William O'Connor who moved up four spots to Number 16 after reaching the final. Others to move spots included Joe Cullen who moved up to 13th. Luke Woodhouse surged to 28th up third.

While nine-dart hero Nathan Aspinall who didn't qualify for Minehead last year continued his recent love affair with the ProTour by reaching 34th going up five spots. Cam Crabtree also did superb business once again after starting on the Development Tour for most of the season and after adding £3.5k is up six spots to World No.38.