Preview Saturday night at Players Championship Finals 2025: Gerwyn Price & Luke Littler headline main stage in Minehead

Sixteen players are still in the race for the title at the Players Championship Finals 2025 in Minehead. Saturday evening the matches from the third round will be played.

It will be the second time these players have been in action, as the second round was played Saturday afternoon. The format as of now up for the first time. The last sixteen will be played over best of 19 legs. So ten legs are needed to secure a spot in the quarterfinals.
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For the last time this tournament, two stages will be used during this evening session. On the main stage, we begin with a duel between Gerwyn Price and Martin Schindler. 'The Iceman' leads the leaderboard in Minehead after being the best player on the Players Championship circuit in 2025 with four titles, among others. It will be his second time facing a German this tournament, as Price already dealt with Max Hopp (6-2) in the first round. He then played an excellent second round, in which the former rugby player defeated Sebastian Bialecki 6-1 thanks to an average of 105.06.

Schindler started his tournament with a 6-4 victory over Michael Smith, and then was too strong for Nick Kenny 6-4. Last week they also met at the Grand Slam of Darts. Then Price won 10-6 over Schindler.

Danny Noppert was the last player to finish on the main stage in the afternoon session, but has been assigned to the second match for this evening session. After his resounding victories over Ricky Evans (6-2) and Madars Razma (6-1), a meeting with Nathan Aspinall now awaits.

With averages of 103.84 and 102.91 respectively, 'The Freeze' showed in his first two rounds that he is still in top form. Aspinall hasn't really been in trouble in Minehead either. He comfortably brushed aside Karel Sedlacek (6-3) and Richard Veenstra (6-0).It will be the 23rd meeting between Noppert and Aspinall, and the odds are pretty close. Both players have won 11 times in the past. The last battle was struck by Noppert, who triumphed 10-7 against 'The Asp' at the European Darts Championship.

At this tournament, Luke Littler has no chance of winning the Players Championship Finals, as he hopes to get one of the missing major titles on his record. Especially after the elimination of rivals Luke Humphries and Gian van Veen, Littler's favoritism has increased even further.

In his first matches, Littler proved to be a size too big for both Jeffrey de Graaf (6-1) and Ross Smith (6-3), with 'The Nuke' hitting averages of 104.46 and 107.15. It was up to Ricardo Pietreczko to try to give the reigning world champion a leg up. The German survived five match darts against Gary Anderson after winning 6-2 over William O'Connor in the first round.

The final match on the main stage is between Krzysztof Ratajski and Josh Rock. Ratajski was responsible at the last 32 for the exit of Gian van Veen, who left two match darts unused. Ratajski then struck mercilessly and reached the last sixteen at this tournament for the first time since 2022.

Rock has just reached the last sixteen at the Players Championship Finals for the first time in his career. Rock first disposed of Gabriel Clemens 6-3, and then thrashed his good friend Scott Williams 6-0. 'Rocky' boasts a remarkably good record against his upcoming Polish opponent. Of the previous twelve encounters, he managed to finish ten victoriously.

On board 2, the session gets underway with a meeting between Daryl Gurney and Adam Lipscombe. Gurney, winner of this tournament back in 2018, played his way past Brendan Dolan (6-3) and Stephen Bunting (6-4) in the first two rounds. For Lipscombe, it is the first time at all that he has reached the last sixteen at a major. He surprised Cameron Menzies in the first round 6-1, and then also knocked aside Bradley Brooks (6-2) by large numbers.

In the second match, two men face each other who have both won titles at this venue before. James Wade won the UK Open there in 2021, and a year later Andrew Gilding took the overall victory in sensational fashion. Earlier this tournament, Wade picked up wins against Mickey Mansell (6-3) and Peter Wright (6-4), while Gilding survived leg-deciders against Dom Taylor (6-5) and Justin Hood (6-5).

Jermaine Wattimena next made his appearance on the second stage. 'The Machine Gun' impressed in his previous match by beating Ryan Joyce 6-2 with an average of 108.94. Earlier the Dutchman also impressed with a 6-3 victory over Wesley Plaisier, a match in which Wattimena also threw an average of over one hundred. Ryan Searle opened his campaign with a 6-1 victory over Darren Beveridge, after which he also managed to defeat Callan Rydz (6-5). In the head-to-head Searle is leading 5-4 after nine encounters, but on the other hand Wattimena managed to win the previous three duels all together.

Last up is Chris Dobey and James Hurrell. Dobey had an exciting second round match against Cam Crabtree. Leading 5-1, he missed two match darts before Crabtree managed to come back to 5-5 and left two match darts unused himself. Dobey then struck with a 94 finish, having previously beaten Keane Barry 6-1. Hurrell started his tournament with a surprising 6-3 win over Jonny Clayton, after which he also beat Luke Woodhouse (6-1).