Steve Beaton makes retirement U-turn, enters Q-School next week

While the entry list isn't fully confirmed yet for Monday's UK Q-School, Steve Beaton will be a part of the line-up making a retirement U-turn and will be one of the leading lights in the first stage in Milton Keynes.

The 61-year-old made 33 consecutive PDC World Darts Championship appearances at Ally Pally and retired at the end of 2024. But he will make a shock U-turn to return to Q-School in a bid to at least play on the Challenge Tour again.

Long mooted to play alongside Adrian Lewis, 'Jackpot' is unlikely to play as was confirmed last month with the two-time World Champion set for exhibitions during European Tour weekends holding the key behind his likely bid to curtail a return as of right now.

Initially walking away from the sport in 2023, he decided not to retire straight away and had one final Ally Pally bow but instead will play at Arena MK in Milton Keynes.

925 names reportedly have entered into the tournament which acts as the dream factory for a golden ticket to the PDC Tour. Both finalists in the final stage will seal Tour Cards as of this year with Beaton needing to win through unlike top names from the Challenge Tour, losing Tour Card holders and affiliate tours who are into the final stage.

John Part, former three-time world champion is also in the field with the Canadian already in the UK commentating on the PDC World Darts Championship final. Fallon Sherrock is also one of the leading lights with Lewis not on the list as per The Sun.

Beaton had spoken last month to Online Darts that he was thinking about it but if he did get a Tour Card he would pick and choose. “They keep asking me this all year. If I was fortunate to go back and get a card, I wouldn’t necessarily want to play all the time. What I’d want is to pick and choose. If I got a card for two years, maybe go to a third of them or fifty percent of them, and still do exhibitions and slow it down that way.”

“Even if I don’t get a Tour Card, I could play on the Challenge Tour and things like that. If I’ve got a weekend free I can go and have a game with the lads.”

He also mooted that Lewis was unlikely to be involved at the time. “Me and Adrian Lewis have been talking. I don’t think Aidy’s going to do it. I just don’t know really. I’m going to wait and see.”