The third edition of the WDF Lakeside World Championship will be played in Frimley Green from November 29 to December 8. A field of 48 men will compete for the title at the iconic Lakeside Country Club.
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Until October 28, players have a chance to qualify for Lakeside through WDF ranking tournaments. This can be done through the rankings, or by winning a tournament with gold or platinum status.
Ky Smith, Shane McGuirk, Jacob Taylor, Jarno Bottenberg, Howard Jones and Connor Scutt secured entry into the WDF World Championship by winning a tournament of such status.
Through the qualifying race, the likes of Neil Duff, Ben Robb, Thomas Junghans, Wesley Plaisier, Leonard Gates, Alexander Merkx and Moreno Blom have gained virtual seeded status for Lakeside 2024.
Currently, Jimmy van Schie, Matthew Edgar, Dennis Nilsson and Paul Lim are among the players who have also provisionally qualified for this event. Players who do not qualify through the qualifying race still have a chance to qualify through a qualifying tournament. This will be held in October, in which four starting spots will be distributed.
I stumbled into the world of darts quite by accident back in 2013. For a Journalism School assignment, I had to produce a live sports report and as it happened, the European Tour event in Veldhoven was the only available option. That weekend, I caught the darts bug. The post-match interviews especially appealed to me, as darts players tend to be much more open and approachable than what you usually see with footballers on television.
After a few detours, I joined Dartsnieuws.com in 2017 as editor-in-chief. I don’t have much competitive experience myself, although I once entered a PDC Development Tour weekend just to experience what it’s like from a player’s perspective. I even managed to win a leg against a Tour Card holder and, quite by accident, earned £50 in prize money.
In 2022, I was also involved in the founding of the TOTO Dart Kings, a commercial darts team, where I worked as media manager for three years. Unfortunately, due to new legislation in the Netherlands, that project came to an end in 2025.
Through my work in darts, I’ve been fortunate to travel to some incredible events, from Premier League nights at Ahoy Rotterdam, to several World Championships, and even the US Darts Masters at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Beyond darts, I’m a passionate sports fan in general. You can always wake me up for a game of tennis or padel, and I love following football, tennis, padel, cycling, Formula 1, and ice skating.