Preview Saturday evening 2026 PDC World Darts Championship: Luke Humphries headlines as a darting legend returns to the Ally Pally

A superb Saturday night bill on December 13 at Alexandra Palace. Featuring, among others, a living darts legend from Singapore, a former world champion and a Dutch top prospect, all making their first appearance at the 2026 PDC World Darts Championship.

The evening opens straight away with a match many darts fans will be eager to watch. The 71-year-old Singaporean Paul Lim returns to the big stage at Alexandra Palace after three years away, meeting Dutch-born Swede Jeffrey de Graaf in the first round. Immediately after comes one of the standout ties of round one: Wessel Nijman faces the stubborn Czech Karel Sedlacek, before 2024 world champion Luke Humphries locks horns with Ted Evetts. The night then wraps up with Gabriel Clemens against Alex Spellman.

This will undoubtedly be a match many darts aficionados will sit down for. And despite Paul Lim being a living legend of the sport, De Graaf will not be thrilled with this draw. The crowd will very likely be on the Singaporean’s side, which can make it extra tricky for the Dutch-born player who has lived in Sweden for years. On paper, though, De Graaf will be favored to get over the line. The 35-year-old has had a fine year and even captured his first PDC title. At Players Championship 24 he beat everyone in his path and edged Stephen Bunting 8-7 in the final. Earlier this year he also reached a final, but then lost out to Martin Schindler.

And then Paul Lim. “The Singapore Slinger,” who at 71 instantly becomes the oldest participant ever at the World Darts Championship. Although, at this age, he is understandably less active, he still commendably qualified for Ally Pally. He did so via the PDC Asian Tour Qualifier. Lim played the WDF World Championship at Lakeside last year and came close to a huge upset. The then 70-year-old made it all the way to the final, but ultimately had to bow to Ireland’s Shane McGuirk. He, and many others with him, will hope he can write a similar fairy tale at the PDC Worlds this year, though that might be a touch optimistic. Still, there will be enough chances for Lim to win this match, even if De Graaf appears to have a slight edge over the Singaporean on paper.

Next up is potentially one of the tightest first-round matches, at least on paper. Wessel Nijman, who is rising fast and tipped by many fellow pros as an outside contender this Worlds, faces a tough assignment in his opener. The Dutchman meets “Evil Charlie” Karel Sedlacek, who has plenty of experience on this stage and is certainly not to be underestimated. Nijman will, however, head to London with plenty of confidence this year. Although he crashed out 3-0 to Joe Cullen in round two last year, he has taken big steps in 2024 and could go seriously deep. The 25-year-old won two Players Championship events this year and regularly impressed on the European Tour, highlighted by two semi-finals. Only at the big majors did it leave a bit to be desired, something he wants to change this month.

He will first have to get past the Czech Karel Sedlacek, though. While he hasn’t produced standout results this year, he was consistent on the floor events, reaching quarter-finals several times. In addition, Nijman and Sedlacek have met five times over the past two years, with the Czech winning three. One of those clashes was on TV at a European Tour event earlier this year, where Sedlacek also prevailed 6-5. Nijman knows what to expect and that he’ll need to be ready. But given the year he has had, he should be favored to book his place in round two.

Luke Humphries may be the only man who can stop Luke Littler this year. “Cool Hand Luke” recently had to surrender his world number one spot to the 18-year-old and will be determined to reclaim it and crown himself world champion for the second time. Humphries was essentially the player who picked up the majors where Littler went out. He won both the World Masters and the Premier League, beating his main rival in the latter’s final. Alongside those two majors he also won the U.S. Darts Masters and the Czech Darts Open. Perhaps not the most trophy-laden year for the 30-year-old, but certainly far from unproductive. The chance of the two Lukes meeting in the final is again considerable, although Humphries does have a tougher draw than his namesake.

So in the first round he will first have to get past his compatriot Ted Evetts. We have seen and heard little of him this year. The 28-year-old played 29 of the 34 Players Championship events but failed to make a deep run. However, ‘SuperTed’ still qualified for the Worlds via the Challenge Tour. He finished a fine third there, helped by winning one event, and that earned him a World Championship ticket. His draw hasn’t been kind, though, because under normal circumstances Humphries should be a class above Evetts. If we look at their head-to-head, however, the numbers are surprisingly close. The pair have met 11 times, with Humphries leading 6-5. A caveat is needed, because all those meetings took place between 2017 and 2023. Humphries was not yet at the level he is now, so we can draw little from those figures.

Finally, Gabriel Clemens and Alex Spellman face off. It’s a match that could go either way. Although Clemens is the better-known name, the German has not been in top form for quite some time. The German Giant did post a few floor results, including a quarterfinal and a semifinal, but otherwise failed to make waves this year.

Spellman booked his World Championship spot by winning the CDC Continental Cup. He beat Dave Cameron 8-5 in the final. Beyond that, the American mainly played on the CDC Pro Tour. He also recently featured at the Grand Slam of Darts, where he landed in a brutally tough group with Luke Humphries, Nathan Aspinall, and Michael Smith. He did not win a single match there and finished bottom of the group with 0 points. Even so, he likely won’t be entirely unhappy with this draw, and in our view there are definitely opportunities for the American.