Unwanted history for Andrew Gilding: No one has played more Pro Tour finals without winning
PDCFriday, 27 February 2026 at 11:00
For Andrew Gilding, the Pro Tour curse continues. Last weekend the Englishman lost his seventh final on this circuit, leaving him with a painful zero from seven. How cruel can it get?
The Pro Tour encompasses tournaments from the Players Championship and the European Tour. The latest blow came this week at Players Championship 6, where Gerwyn Price proved too strong in the final with an 8-1 win over the 55-year-old Englishman.
It was a clear defeat, but not unique. Earlier, at European Tour 6 in 2025, Gilding was even whitewashed 8-0 by Gary Anderson. Those are numbers that sting.
Close to the title a few times
Yet the results don’t tell the whole story. In 2022, Gilding came eerily close to a title several times. He lost 8-6 to Dave Chisnall (ET12), went down by the same score against Danny Noppert (PC19), and also had to bow 8-6 to Geert Nentjes (PC9). All matches where fine margins made the difference.
Even his first two Pro Tour finals in 2014 ended in disappointment. Against both Gary Anderson (6-5, PC1) and Stephen Bunting (6-5, UKQ2), Gilding fell just short.
Andrew Gilding missed out on the title at Players Championship 6 this week
Fine margins
What stands out most: four of the seven lost finals were decided by just one or two legs. That underscores how small the margins are at this level. Time and again, Gilding shows he has the game to reach finals, but at the decisive moments the coin keeps landing the wrong way for him.
Gilding currently tops the unenviable list for most Pro Tour finals without a win. Behind him are German Gabriel Clemens and the Englishmen Ricky Evans and Wayne Jones, three players with six finals each and no victory.
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- i can't answer this definitively, but i can make some suggestions. firstly, these are essentially just glorified qualifiers for TV events which double as helping the lesser players on tour make a living, but they aren't really considered that significant. they weren't even streamed until the past decade or so. most casual fans don't even know they exist and getting an audience in might be difficult. i'm assuming they're currently quite cheap to run and they would need to sell a lot of tickets to justify opening them up into more of a spectacle. they're held on weekdays when most people are at work anyway and there's no room on the calendar to put most of them on weekends. the logistics of presenting it to an audience would also be tricky given that they have to get through 7 rounds containing 128 players in a single day, using loads of stages simultaneously. maybe the uk open could be used as a template but it'd need to be even more condensed into a short time period, and even with the uk open it's hard to follow most of the games. the venues they're currently held at wouldn't cater for turning this into a public event as they're pretty small, so they'd need to hire much bigger venues 30 times in places around the country. it just probably isn't feasible. i also suspect the players don't really want to play in front of drunk audiences in every single domestic tournament, they already have the euro tour, world series and majors for that. the players championship is basically a way for players to demonstrate they're ready to make the step up to those levels of competition.colt26-02-2026
- Hi, can someone explain why the Players Championship takes place behind closed doors? I've been watching the big championships on and off for decades, but only just started taking a keener interest in the game, and this strange looking competition is a bit of a head scratcher to me at the moment.MrMarkWatsonnonotthatone25-02-2026
- Not Noppy. Get Beau in.medinabello25-02-2026
- If I was noppert,I'd say,sod you lot. You don't think I'm good enough,but suddenly,I can be a replacement? What a load of rubbish. Either you're in,or not. I keep saying,it's a pointless league,just to get people on seats,and beer down their necks. Scrap the whole thingrick6724-02-2026
- Exactly! Did the Glasgow punters get a partial refund for missing out on a potentially explosive match up? I don't know but I doubt it. Given the existing set up, how about this? Four reserves, one European based player to cover the four overseas rounds (including Dublin) and three UK based players to cover four UK rounds each (including Belfast). If the number of continental rounds changed to four for instance then Dublin could be transferred to the UK players allocation for convenience. All reserves should have their travel and accommodation costs covered and to make it worth their while, if they are not used, the reserve could play a match with a LOCAL non tour card holding player between the semi finals and final. This local player would be chosen by a prior qualifying tournament. The prize for this game could be £/euros 1000 or 2000 as the reserve could be spending his time and effort doing an exhibition instead not that I know what the commercial rate for an exhibition is! If the reserve is used in the main competition then the winner and the runner up of the qualifier can play. This could generate additional local interest and publicity. Obviously this doesn't cover every "what if" scenario i.e. What if two main players pull out? Maybe a second of the four reserves could be chosen at random? What do you think?OldShakey23-02-2026
- what a load of crocmedinabello19-02-2026
- So,it's a rubbish league,waste of time. Just put 8000 people in a building every Thursday,get them all drunk,and wonder why it's a complete joke. And forget every other player apart from 8. It's a ridiculous,inane,and needless so called competition.rick6718-02-2026
- Sorry,I've never been a professional darts player,but obviously from your comment,you have. So, going to your reply, you're blaming the management,not the player? So in that respect,he should get a different manager? That's basically all your comment is saying. Don't let him do money makers,which Barney said is easy money, instead of tournaments? Shake hands instead of trophies? Well I guess the manager knows best,as he has a big cut!rick6716-02-2026
- Sorry Mr rick67, erm what punditry credentials do you have to comment on a pundit? There's a reason why many top professionals have management teams. They know how to manage schedules etc so the players can just play. And how is Edgar wrong? Last year MVG failed to qualify by missing too many tournaments and underperforming. He's repeating the error this year so Edgar is right In calling this out.BandB15-02-2026
- Just get of Mardle,I didn't pay to watch him,and I don't want him for free! Let's see,how many world champions,either code,did you win? None! Now mason does it more as a player who was a floor player than you were putting pineapple on your shirt. Mardle,just go,you over inflated ego may follow. Tell you what,get on the seniors tour,and show everyone how good you weren'trick6715-02-2026
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