“Somebody who has to go to a qualifier... Should be top seed in that group?” - Stephen Bunting’s Grand Slam of Darts advantage sparks call for change

Stephen Bunting went to Leicester last Friday knowing a single defeat would cost him a place at the Grand Slam of Darts. He averaged over 100 in all three matches to get through. By Monday, he was ninth seed in Wolverhampton, at the head of a group containing two players who had won titles to get there. On the DartsNews Podcast, Samuel Gill argued that major winners and finalists should get first claim on the seeds.

“I’ve got a gripe with this first and foremost,” said Gill, DartsNews.com’s head editor, on the DartsNews Podcast. “Stephen Bunting qualified and he’s been put in a more advantageous position based on where he is in the rankings than anything else. He’s had to go to a qualifier because he hasn’t done enough over the course of the season to qualify.”

“Of course, that’s a different debate, because perhaps someone like Bunting should be at the Grand Slam by right,” Gill added. “But do I think he should be the top seed in that group? No. It’s a very difficult group.”

The run that put Bunting back inside the world’s top ten began with a 160 checkout. He had left it until the final European Tour weekend in Maastricht to secure his European Championship place, then needed that finish to beat Danny Noppert in a deciding leg in Dortmund. Four ton-plus checkouts against Kim Huybrechts took him into his first European Championship quarter-final since 2014. Gerwyn Price ended his run there, but Bunting climbed four places to ninth in the world.

Martin Schindler had also qualified on the final weekend in Maastricht. He beat Jonny Clayton 10-1 and Krzysztof Ratajski 11-6 in Dortmund before losing the final 11-8 to Ross Smith. That runner-up finish earned Schindler his Grand Slam place and lifted him to world number 20. Bunting’s quarter-final run had improved his ranking, but he still had to beat Arno Merk, Callan Rydz and Jimmy van Schie at the Tour Card Holder Qualifier.

Once the field was complete, the PDC seeded the 16 highest-ranked players in it using its two-year rankings. That put Bunting at the head of Group D and sent Schindler into Group N alongside 14th seed Chris Dobey and World Youth Championship finalist Jan Schmidt.

“How else would you seed the groups? Or would you just do it completely open-draw?” asked podcast host Kieran Wood, who had covered Bunting’s qualification race for Dortmund. “Because I think you’ve got to seed it somehow. If you’re not going to seed it on the rankings, what other method is there?”

“I’d kind of tier it, realistically, depending on what you’ve won,” Gill replied. “Martin Schindler, for instance, reached a major final this year and he’s not a seed. In my eyes, it’s an okay group with Chris Dobey and Jan Schmidt, but as a major finalist he should get that bigger standing. You should base it first off who reaches a major final and who wins a major.”

Dobey’s three Players Championship titles had already earned him a place in Wolverhampton. In Gill’s version of the draw, those wins could also help determine where he was seeded.

“Then you get from there to the European Tour, maybe, or the ProTour, depending on how you’re doing it,” Gill said, citing Dobey and Wessel Nijman. “You do it almost ranked based off achievement more than the Order of Merit, which is a two-year system anyway.”

In 2024, Danny Noppert came through the last-chance qualifier, went into the Grand Slam as eighth seed and won all three matches in a group that included Martin Schindler and Cameron Menzies. Menzies joined him in the last 16 with a single group win. The second qualifying place has gone this year. Menzies is back in a group headed by a last-chance qualifier, and this time there’s only one place in the last 16.

“Now it’s kind of all or nothing,” Gill said of the group stage. “It does add some jeopardy for some players who perhaps aren’t in great form. But in other groups, it’s kind of more cut and dried that that player will win.”

Smith booked trips to both Wolverhampton and Ally Pally with a 10-2 win over Tim Pusey in the ANZ Premier League final. “Menzies is probably the top player in that group in my eyes,” Gill said. “But Raymond Smith could be the big surprise out of Group D. He’s shown it on the big stage before.”

Bunting had already met Menzies in a match with qualification at stake this autumn. His 6-2 win in Maastricht secured his place in Dortmund, where he went on to reach the last eight. “I expect big things from Bunting this week, actually,” Wood said. “He’s come into form the last few weeks. He’s come through the last-chance qualifier here, and I feel he’s picking up a little bit of momentum.”

After the Huybrechts match in Dortmund, Bunting spent part of his press conference talking through his switch from 23- to 21-gram darts. DartsNews.de editor and podcast co-host Nicolas Gayer, who interviewed him after that win, remembered how attached he had already become to the new set.

“He called them his babies,” Gayer recalled. “As we all know, that can change a lot in darts if you just trust your equipment again. And also, if you use new barrels, it can feel like a bit of a fresh start and a new beginning.”

“I will back Stephen Bunting to actually win that group,” he added, “although I’m not confident with the pick, to be honest.”

Bunting shared the floor in Leicester with players whose seasons had taken very different paths. Carl Sneyd won three matches to reach his first Grand Slam and Joe Cullen came from 3-0 down to deny former champion Michael Smith. Gary Anderson chose to sit the qualifier out. The PDC had initially provided for eight places from that event, with more available if fewer than 40 players qualified by the other routes. Those routes filled 38 places, leaving 91 Tour Card holders to compete for ten.

“I just don’t like the idea of doing a tournament where you want to reward all the title winners and the major finalists, and then you say, ‘Yeah, okay, but ten other guys as well,’” Gayer said. “I think if you have that idea, then fully do it. Do it in a proper way and actually only invite those people who match the criteria.”

Scott Waites won the Grand Slam as a BDO player in 2010, and Martin Adams and Andy Fordham both played in Wolverhampton. Gayer brought up DartsNews’ look at a possible WDF contingent as another use for some of the places that went to Leicester.

“I would love the WDF to return, personally, because as a child watching darts, that was the big thing for me, was seeing Martin Adams, Andy Fordham when he played in that famous year,” Gill said. “One of the best moments in tournament history was Andy Fordham playing on that stage.” He felt the tournament had “lost kind of a bit of its magic and lustre” when those meetings disappeared.

“The BDO back in the day, when you had Martin Adams, Ted Hankey, Tony O’Shea, people like that, these are household names and characters of their own,” Wood said. “For the wider darting public now, outside of us, outside Mitchell Lawrie, how many of these WDF players are they even going to care about or know?”

“Some of the people that were in the BDO line-up before weren’t very well-known people,” Gill replied. He had a route in mind for Lakeside finalists who go on to join the PDC. They could carry an invitation into the following year’s Grand Slam even if they earned a Tour Card in the meantime.

Reaching a final is already enough to earn a place through one route. Schmidt will open his Grand Slam against Dobey this weekend and face Cam Crabtree for the World Youth title at Minehead later in the month. An invitation for Lakeside finalists would give the WDF a comparable way into Wolverhampton.

Bunting opens against Raymond Smith on Saturday afternoon. A win takes him through to Monday’s match against Menzies, after the Scot has played Smith on Sunday. Lose the opener and Bunting will be back on Sunday against Menzies, needing a win to stay in contention.

The Group D winner will face Josh Rock, Kevin Doets or Tommy Morris in the last 16.