Schedule Saturday afternoon session at the 2021 Masters featuring Cross, Wade, Aspinall and Chisnall
PDC
Rob Cross, James Wade, Nathan Aspinall and Dave Chisnall enter the fray as the top eight seeds join the party at the Masters.
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The first session of the 2021 season was a real mixed bag, but one common theme was a disregard for the seedings. In six of the eight ties, the higher-ranking player was sent packing. It's a warning to the four big names starting today that the Masters isn't going to be forgiving.
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Rob Cross mounts his 2021 Masters campaign under the backdrop of yet another new dawn, with 2020 not proving to be the year that Voltage resurrected his debut season form. Cross' World Championship looks bad on paper, with his exit sealed in the second round, but he didn't play badly against Dirk van Duijvenbode. Perhaps a good Masters run will give the fourth seed some momentum.
Cross could take a leaf from the Book of Merv, that's for sure. Mervyn King is playing some of the best darts he's displayed in years. He'll still be kicking himself at not putting eventual world champion Gerwyn Price through a more rigorous test at the Ally Pally, but a ruthless win over Glen Durrant showed that the King is still in regal form. It's an odd one, but the man who wouldn't even be at the Masters without this year's format change must be the favourite at this stage.
Chris Dobey had a rough 2020, but the statistics suggested that the results weren't matching up to the performances. Dobey finally got what he deserved in the first match of the new season. Dimitri van den Bergh may have been under-par, but the Bedlington thrower looked solid throughout and claimed a big scalp on his Masters debut.
He takes on a bigger target in Mr Solid himself, James Wade. The Machine fired in a nine-darter in his most recent match, though he'd have traded it for a win over Stephen Bunting. Wade is very much in the running for that final Premier League spot, but more importantly, opening his season with a second Masters title would be a nice way to kick off the year.
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Ian White's Premier League hopes have been dashed to bits, though Mensur Suljovic can't take a ton of credit for it. Winning a footrace is a little easier when your opponent shoots themselves in the foot 23 times, as White did in a shocking showing on the outer ring. The Gentle won't mind one bit; could he still stake a claim for a Premier League return?
Nathan Aspinall made his debut at the Masters a year ago, and came within a whisker of reaching the final. The fifth seed will be out to go a step further in what should be a busy year, what with another Premier League season, all the TV events and hopefully a less truncated Pro Tour season. It's up to Suljovic to put the brakes on Aspinall's Masters charge - his penchant for slowing people down only being alleged, of course.
We round off the session with a repeat of a first-round Masters tie from a year ago. Back in the heady days of Coronavirus featuring in just one news story rather than all of them, Dave Chisnall edged out Daryl Gurney, and then his wheels fell off, letting Peter Wright storm to a whitewash quarter-final win. Chizzy could meet Wright in the last eight again this time, so he'll want less of the 2020 vintage and something more akin to that outrageous thrashing of Michael van Gerwen that earned him the Televised Performance of the Year gong at the recent PDC awards.
It has taken a while, but Daryl Gurney's looking back to something like his best. Unfortunately, the Premier League will be the elephant in the room throughout this tournament, and with that in mind Gurney can do his chances a gigantic favour by sending Chisnall out. Superchin made a bit of a pig's ear of it against Jeffrey de Zwaan, but eventually got the job done, and can at least look back at this first three legs as the blueprint for further success.
2021 Masters Schedule
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Saturday January 30 (1245 GMT)
Second Round
13:00 Rob Cross v Mervyn King
14:00 James Wade v Chris Dobey
15:00 Nathan Aspinall v Mensur Suljovic
16:00 Dave Chisnall v Daryl Gurney
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- And why should he listen to you?Deduce635807-11-2026
- Ultimately it is a bye for whoever draws Barney. It will be another stroppy and sulky performance once he goes behind. Barney was excellent but really must completely call it a day now.richieburnettrocks07-11-2026
- I'm disappointed he was not able to secure a spot at the Grand Slam. With Carl Sneyd taking care of Daryl Gurney, he would have had to beat Andy Boulton before facing the winner of Sneyd vs Mensur Suljović for a Grand Slam spot. Unfortunately, after beating Filip Bereza comfortably, he succumbed to Boulton, and the board would ultimately be won by the highly inconsistent Carl Sneyd. Since he could instead have been drawn against the likes of Cristo Reyes, Dirk van Duijvenbode and Stephen Bunting, I think once Gurney was out of the picture he would have been favourite to win his board, and it seems like a massive missed opportunity to put 5 grand on his ranking and seal another major TV appearance ahead of the Worlds. The highs and lows of following Raymond van Barneveld!Deduce635806-11-2026
- Probably i will receive a lot of backlash and hate for this reaction, but well, so be it. I am more than sick and tired of those lies of you Barry Hearn. How dare you defend yourself over the back of Fallon’s son! He has a disability and not an illness, so let me correct that for you! I know because I have the exact same disability. I have tried to reach out to Fallon in the past, and offered her to help her and her son, because I was struggling with the same problems, and I understood the boy. I wanted him to have finally someone who understood him. However she told me that she did not want my help, and I have respected Fallon’s choice. I have never asked Fallon for money. They don’t need money in that case. I only ever wanted the best for Fallon and Rory, but I have to be honest about the situation. Fallon should tell the true story and not be forced to tell lies. I don’t hate Fallon, and I don’t begrudge or envy a single penny that she gets, but this situation/case is just not fair. I hate the lies and the dishonesty and injustice. I don’t want Fallon to be hated because there is an unfair disadvantage created. Don’t proclaim your false lies over the back of Rory! I only stand for integrity and justice. I am precisely the one who always sticks up for Fallon. And you don't, you don't give a damn about them. You were never there for them, and now you only want to save your own position! You are just trying to talk your way out of your own bad behavior at the expense of someone with a disability. And to Fallon, I don’t know if this may ever reach you, and you read it, but I want you to know I love you and I love your son Rory very much, I am sorry how things developed and went. I hope you and Harriet are still friends. I am sorry if I were too persistent to you, or you experienced it that way, but it was never my intention. Please understand I have autism as well. As Barry Hearn would say, I am only just a human being too, and I also make mistakes and misjudge things sometimes. I promise you I did everything out of the deepest love and care for you and Rory. If I were you, I should just keep all the money, only please never be dishonest or tell lies anymore for Barry Hearn, or anyone else. I hope you have the best life, and I wish nothing more than the best for you. I have always loved the two of you. Farewell.Hiddo05-11-2026
- She is a professional. If darts is her income, she is a professional. Same as Adrian Lewis, Martin Adams. A tour card just means someone can play on the PDC tour. You could even make a case that Clayton wasn't a professional (until recently I believe) because he had employment elsewhere.BandB04-11-2026
- She's technically not a professional though as she doesn't hold a pro tour card.mr-pablo04-11-2026
- Such a shame that lakeside has been reduced to this. Fantastic venue,and previously a great tournament. Not any morerick6703-11-2026
- Seems to me that the top 16 players pick and choose whatever they want to play. Good,all the money will get spread out more. They get more money from exhibitions than tournaments so let them all withdrawrick6703-11-2026
- Play all legs and the winners split the pot. Luke gets the lot of he wins them all. If your occupation is darts player you can't enter, regardless of ability.BandB01-11-2026
- I'm quite a jaded person all things considered, but to be honest I found Beat Luke Littler to be pretty entertaining. It certainly wasn't seamless, which is to be expected given the lack of precedence, but I actually think the pacing was pretty good, the production was impressive, and there was a good sense of humour and levity to it. I think it was a very ambitious undertaking but one that, for the most part, paid off. I liked the system with the four pots and I think it added to the drama and intrigue. I enjoyed seeing the diverse range of entrants and learning about their backstories. I think the interactivity was pretty clever and well-integrated. The panel was a little incoherent at times; Lee Mack shone however, and his improvisational skills were appreciated during some more awkward interstitial moments. As far as the darts is concerned, it was a shame that the format didn't allow Littler to get into full flow. You obviously don't want him to steamroll everyone but you want to feel like you're getting the full Littler package rather than seeing him struggling to get out of first gear. I will say that his leg against Jayden Walker was very impressive, but it was mostly downhill from there. The attraction revolves around Littler being this untouchable, indomitable force, yet the format doesn't really allow him to fulfil that characterisation. As for Fallon Sherrock, she was mightily impressive and deserved the victory. It is a testament to her unshakeable character that she was able to bang in a 14-darter under such mind-bending pressure. Everything that has been said about the misleading marketing is valid, though they were clear about their eligibility criteria and were able to offload the responsibility somewhat by bringing the viewers into the decision-making process in real time. What is clear though, is that Fallon played the game according to the rules, and she should not be criticised for that, much less abused. I will admit though that it is a kick in the teeth for those true amateurs who committed time and money to the course, and I would also question those who think pub players would have no chance, given that some of Littler's winning legs were dispatched in 7 visits to the board! The great thing about darts is that it isn't so much that amateurs cannot replicate the feats of brilliance pulled off by professionals of the sport, than it is that they simply cannot replicate the consistency of their output, something that this format almost entirely removes from the equation. It should also be noted that, financially, Fallon certainly stands to benefit much less in relative terms from the paycheque than would your average pub thrower, as I'm sure she nets a fair income from the lucrative exhibition circuit alone. What I do hope is that she might use this as an opportunity to really build up a head of steam heading into the new season, as it seems long overdue that she come through Q-School and really take it to the pros on a week-in week-out basis, but whatever she chooses to do, she has certainly achieved enough already for one if not several lifetimes, so who am I to dictate terms? To conclude though, I will state once again that I found Beat Luke Littler to be a pretty enjoyable evening of entertainment. I do feel for the contestants who never actually had the chance to try their luck against the world #1, although I suppose it comes with the format, but all which inevitably raises the question: will Netflix be tempted to do it all again next year? It's hard to say. Whether it would be financially viable, I can't weigh in there. One point I have been making though, and which I touched on earlier, is that the entire concept relies on a public perception that Littler is more or less unbeatable, and that certainly hasn't been the case of late. If the execs had been trying to pitch the show in recent months while Littler has seemed vulnerable, rather than when he was mopping up almost every major title on the calendar, it would certainly be a tougher sell. We will have to see in about 6 months' time whether Littler can still reliably command perception as a near-unstoppable force in darts, and then we'll have a clearer idea about whether we should expect a second helping. Even as a one-off experiment though, and with all the controversy taken into account, I still don't think they disgraced themselves by any means, and that will probably be my lingering assessment of the event when all is said and done.Deduce635801-11-2026