Former World finalists Peter Manley, Mark Dudbridge and Kirk Shepherd, as well as former BDO world number 3 Jeffrey De Graaf, will be among the field of 400 players competing to secure a PDC tour card at Q-School; after the full list of entries were confirmed on Monday evening.
The four day event, which takes place at the Robin Park Tennis Centre in Wigan from January 13th-16th, offers 16 automatic two-year tour cards, with the final four players remaining on each day securing a card.
Ranking points are awarded throughout the four days based on the overall finishing positions, and further tour cards are subsequently awarded based on the final standings on the Q-School Order of Merit.
Players who secure a tour card will be eligible to compete in all Players Championship events throughout the year. They will also be able to participate in UK Open qualifiers and European Tour qualifiers, with the potential incentive of qualifying for major TV events.
However, players who fail to secure a tour card will still be permitted to enter UK Open qualifiers, European Tour qualifiers and the PDPA World Championship qualifier.
They will also have the opportunity to compete on the PDC Challenge Tour, and may be able to enter certain Players Championship events, if and when some of the 128 Tour card holders opt not to enter.
Peter Manley, a two-time World Championship finalist and former Las Vegas Desert Classic winner, is one of the biggest names vying for a coveted tour card.
Manley, nicknamed ‘One Dart’, last held a tour card in 2011, but remains a key part of the PDC set-up, as the chairman of the Professional Darts Players Association. Yet, he still retains a burning desire to return to the professional circuit.
Mark Dudbridge, who was beaten in the 2005 World Championship Final by Phil Taylor, has endured a disappointing run of form on the Pro Tour over the last 18 months, which has seen him fall out of the world’s top 64. Despite this, ‘Flash’ will be aiming to make an instant return to the circuit by securing a tour-card at Wigan.
Kirk Shepherd, who was a shock finalist in the 2008 World Championships, will be looking to reclaim his card. He failed in a bid to secure a tour card twelve months ago, instead competing on the PDC Challenge tour. He enjoyed decent success, winning one event in March, whilst reaching another final in September.
Colin Osborne, a 2009 UK Open finalist and a former Championship League of Darts winner, is also vying to return to the circuit. Osborne made his last televised appearance at the 2014 World Championships, but the Teessider is determined to return to the big-time.
Mark Walsh and Barrie Bates, both of whom are also former UK Open finalists, will both be present at the Robin Park Tennis Centre this week. Walsh, the winner of 10 PDC ranking events, has suffered a significant dip in form, having been ranked in the top 20 just three years ago.
Bates meanwhile, has been plagued by injury problems for almost a decade. The popular Welshman, who was beaten in the 2006 UK Open final by Raymond van Barneveld, suffers with arthritis in both his hand and his leg, but continues to battle away regardless.
Former World-Youth champions James Hubbard and Arron Monk, who both secured their respective titles by beating Michael van Gerwen in the final, will also be present in Wigan and aiming to regain their tour cards.
The majority of preliminary qualifiers from this year’s PDC World Championships will be fighting it out for a regular spot on the circuit. Thanawat Gaweenuntawong, Mick McGowan, Per Laursen, Michael Rasztovitz, Warrick Scheffer, John Michael, Sven Groen and Michael Rasztovits will all compete at Wigan in the coming days.
Additionally, Rene Eidams, who took Michael van Gerwen to a deciding set tiebreak in the first-round at Ally Pally, is also present on the list of Q-School entrants. ‘The Cube’ was a relative unknown heading into the World Championships, but his performance against MvG was one of the stories of the tournament.
One youngster to look out for over the coming days at Q-School is 17-year-old Declan Salter. Salter represents Suffolk at county level, and he’ll be participating on the PDC Development tour in 2016.
Nevertheless, former world number 1 Colin Lloyd will not be competing at Q-School. Lloyd, a former World Matchplay and World Grand-Prix winner, has slipped to 121st on the Order of Merit, having not competed in a TV major since the 2014 World Championships. ‘Jaws’ opted to withdraw his entry, after appearing on the provisional list.
Elsewhere, Egypt’s Mohamed Gharieb will not be present at Q-School. Gharieb harboured aspirations of becoming the first Egyptian representative to play in the PDC, and still remains on the list of 400 participants. However, he was unable to secure a VISA, so his hopes of competing on the PDC circuit are on hold for another twelve months at least.
The most high-profile BDO switcher is young Dutchman Jeffrey de Graaf. The 25-year-old from Schagen was seeded 3rd for the BDO World Championships, but he suffered a surprise first-round exit against his compatriot and eventual semi-finalist Richard Veenstra.
De Graaf enjoyed a fruitful 2015, winning the Belgium Open, the Denmark Masters and German Open. He also reached his first major BDO final, losing in a last-leg decider to Geert de Vos in the World Trophy last March.
De Graaf will be joined at Q-School by his compatriot Ryan de Vreede, who also competed in this year’s BDO World Championships at the Lakeside.
De Vreede enjoyed a six year stint in the PDC from 2009-2015, and made his PDC World Championship debut against Dave Chisnall twelve months ago, where he was beaten in straight sets.
De Vreede was seeded 16th at Frimley Green last week, but he was beaten 3-2 in the first-round by former World Matchplay Champion and 2015 World Masters finalist, Larry Butler.
Michel van der Horst and Mark Oosterhuis, who were the two BDO Dutch qualifiers for last November’s Grand Slam of Darts, have also opted to make the switch and enter Q-School.
Elsewhere, Joshua Richardson, who was crowned BDO World Youth Champion at the Lakeside last Thursday, will also be competing at Q-School. The 17-year-old, who defeated 16-year-old Irishman Jordan Boyce 3-2 to clinch the title, will be competing alongside his father, James ‘Ruthless’ Richardson, for a tour card.
Despite this, BDO World Number 1 Glen Durrant, and former Lakeside World Champion Scott Mitchell, have both opted to remain with the British Darts Organisation.
There had been mounting speculation that Durrant would depart to the PDC if he failed to win the BDO World Championships, and these rumours simply intensified following his 5-4 defeat to Scott Waites in the quarter-finals.
However, any talk of Durrant switching to the PDC was dispelled by an official statement released by the BDO over the weekend, confirming that ‘Duzza’ would remain loyal to the BDO, as they look ahead to a ‘new era’, consisting of more major tournaments from 2016 onwards.
Mitchell was also the subject of media conjecture surrounding his future. When asked about his plans on twitter after his quarter-final exit to Richard Veenstra, he admitted: “I’ve got some thinking to do over the next two days.”
However, in an exclusive interview with the Bournemouth Echo last weekend, Mitchell stated: “I’ve been at the BDO for years and with potentially a few new tournaments round the corner, I’d be a fool to jump now.”
The full list of Q-School entrants can be found below, and Josh’s Dartistry will be providing comprehensive updates from across the four days of competition in Wigan.
PDC Q-School entrants:
Adams, Ben
Adshead, David
Alcinas, Antonio
Ata, Duvaan
Atkinson, Steve
Atwill, Ron
Atwood, Wayne
Ayres, Daniel
Baillie, Richard
Bain, Jamie
Balbach, Raymond
Bambrick, Kevin
Barham, Paul
Barilli, Mark
Barnard, Michael
Barnes, Hayden
Bates, Barrie
Batham, Jeff
Baxter, Mark
Baynham, Michael
Beal, Michael
Beard, Greg
Beekhuis, Jeffrey
Bekema, Jeffrey
Bettney, Paul
Birch, Nigel
Blackwood, Gary
Blake, Michael
Bober, Christian
Boeg, Nigel
Borland, William
Boucher, Richard
Bowers, Stephen
Bowles, John
Boyle, Paul
Bradshaw, Justin
Bramall, Ken
Brammeld, John
Brand, Derek
Branton, Jamie
Breakspear, Mark
Breeze, Craig
Broton, Justin
Brown, Anthony
Brown, Darren
Brown, Darron
Brown, Ernie
Brown, Steve
Burgoine, Michael
Burkhill, Trevor
Burrows, Paul
Burt, Simon
Butkeraitis, Stephen
Calvert, Richard
Campbell, Ray
Candlish, Allan
Carr, Paul
Cassidy, Simon
Ceglowski, Bartosz
Chalkley, John
Chubb, Alex
Clark, Matt
Claydon, Brett
Claydon, Darrell
Clements, Joshua
Cole, Tony
Collin, Adam
Cooper, Paul
Copley, David
Court, John
Cracknell, Lewis
Creed, Terry
Croft, Joe
Crossley, John
Crossley, Wayne
Cusworth, Lee
Dale, Christopher
Dale, Scott
Daniels, Nigel
Darbyshire, Scott
Davies, Ben
Dawson, Michael
de Graaf, Jeffrey
de Vreede, Ryan
Dennant, Matthew
Devine, Kiernan
Dewsbury, Marc
Dimmock, Lee
Dodds, David
Dootson, Eddie
Dowling, Kevin
Dudbridge, Mark
Duo, Dylan
Dyer, Danny
Dyos, Pete
Edhouse, Ritchie
Eguchi, Yuji
Eidams, Rene
Ellam, Jamie
Ellis, Nicholas
Evans, Cory-Lee
Evans, David
Evans, Kieran
Evans, Lee
Evans, Steve
Evetts, Ted
Evison, Peter
Fairhurst, BJ
Fairweather, Arron
Fatum, David
Fitzpatrick, Glenn
Foreman, Jay
Forman, Mark
Forrington, Karl
Fowler, Colin
Fullwell, Nick
Furlani, Michel
Gallimore, Stephen
Ganz, Michael
Garcia, Kevin
Gaweenuntawong, Thanawat
Gemmell, Jamie
Georgiou, Marios
Gewalt, Swen
Gharieb, Mohamed
Gibson, John
Glover, John
Godfrey, Daniel
Golding, Matthew
Goodwin, Paul
Gotthardt, Kai
Gow, Stephen
Griffin, Rhys
Grimble, Martin
Groen, Sven
Guest, Sam
Guilfoyle, Jamie
Ha, Shouichi
Hagan, Sheamus
Hajdar, James
Hajimina, Andreas
Hall, Anthony
Hamilton, Sam
Harding, Stuart
Harrington, Dan
Harrington, Ryan
Harrison, Michael
Hart, Kelvin
Hartrey, Chris
Harvey, Shane
Hasse, Mick
Hayden, Rhys
Hayes, Matthew
Head, Sam
Hendriks, Jerry
Hendriks, Leo
Herz, Fabian
Hill, Chris
Hill, Jack
Hine, Steve
Hingston, Jamie
Hofmann, Jörg
Holgate, Ashley
Holmes, Billy
Holroyd, Rob
Honey, Dave
Honey Jr, Dave
Hosey, Richard
Howson, Richie
Hubbard, James
Huckvale, Adam
Hudson, Peter
Humphrey, Thom
Hunt, Adam
Hussain, Atif
Hutchings, Andy
Hykin, Ashley
Hylton, Mark
Hyslop, Ewan
Illidge, Garath
Imbs, Dariusz
Jackson, Campbell
Jackson, Rhys
Jamieson, David
Johnson, Andrew
Johnson, Sean
Johnston, Dave
Johnston, Jordan
Jones, Nick
Jukes, Jon
Kamphuis, Vincent
Kantele, Marko
Kelling, Jamie
Kenny, Lee
Kerwick, James
Kingdon, Steve
Kirk, Aden
Knowles, Martin
Kornath, Karsten
Ladley, David
Lamb, Nigel
Landon, Jamie
Lane, Kevin
Latham, Darren
Laursen, Per
Lawrence, Mark
Lawson, George
Lee, Daniel
Legius, Tommy
Lerchbacher, Zoran
Lever, Ian
Lewis, Craig
Lieber, John
Lightfoot, Robert
Limer, Stephen
Littlecott, Colin
Loose, Callum
Lopez, Antony
Lovett, Shaun Michael
Lukeman, Martin
Mackay, Callum
Maes, Rocco
Malone, Michael
Manley, Peter
Marijanovic, Robert
Marriott, Jason
Marson, David
Marson, Les
Martin, Peter
Matthews, Jordan
Mawer, Darren
McAllister, Andrew
McGowan, Mick
McHenry, Norman
McKenzie, Rob
McTernan, Christopher
Meeuwisse, Yordi
Meikle, Ryan
Merchant, Karl
Meulenkamp, Ron
Michael, John
Michels, Mareno
Middleton, Krit
Millar, Stuart
Mitchell, Peter
Moar, Ian
Modra, Rob
Moffat, Lee
Monk, Arron
Moore, Keith
Moorhouse, Carl
Morley, Kevin
Moss, Dean
Moss, Ian
Murphy, Jay
Murray, Paul
Nagi, Coni Singh
Nakanishi, Eikichi
Nastula, Tomasz
Newell, Tony
Newland, John
North, Richard
Norton, Mike
Oak, Tony
Oosterhuis, Mark
Osborne, Colin
Osmotherley, Paul
Owen, Robert
Padgett, Matt
Palfreyman, Joey
Palmer, Ryan
Parody, Dyson
Parry, Kurt
Parsons, Andy
Patterson, Jordan
Peach, Danny
Pearson, Michael
Pearson, Steven
Pennington, Sam
Perkins, Steve
Pierce, Robert
Pinhorne, Danny
Place, Darren
Place, David
Poole, Jonathan
Portela, Diogo
Porter, John
Power, John
Power, Michael
Preston, Simon
Quantock, Chris
Quinn, Thomas
Rabadia, Rohit
Randall, Steve
Randell, Tony
Rasztovits, Michael
Read, Dan
Reidy, Shane
Reinecke, Lars
Richardson, James
Richardson, Joshua
Rickwood, Robert
Riihonen, Par
Rimmer, Ross
Roach, Terry
Robinson, Harry
Rodriguez, Carlos
Rodriguez, Roxy-James
Roith, Bernd
Rooney, Keith
Rowley, Paul
Ryan, Sean
Salter, Declan
Scheffer, Warrick
Schouten, Ron
Scrivens, Roger
Seyler, Tomas
Shepherd, Kirk
Sheppard, Vernon
Shewan, Lee
Short, Ryan
Siddle, Paul
Simm, Kevin
Simpson, Ben
Simpson, David
Smith, Damian
Smith, Daniel
Smith, Daniel Paul
Smith, Dennis
Smith, James
Smith, Phil
Smith, Ross
Smith, Simon
Smith, Steve
Smith, Steven
Smith-Neale, Adam
Spedding, Garry
Starkey, Daniel
Stephenson, Mark
Stevens, Aaron
Stevenson, Evander
Stevenson, Simon
Stone, Gary
Stubbs, Stuart
Sudale, Ricky
Sullivan, Ciarán
Suzuki, Kentaro
Symes, Mike
Tarry, Jason
Taylor, Scott
Temple, Terry
ten Berge, Joey
Thomas, Gareth
Thomas, Kevin
Thomas, Martin
Thompson, Robert
Thompson, Sam
Thorne, Mark
Todd, Jack
Todd, Mick
Townsend, Robert
Turner, Martyn
Turner, Steve
Turpin, Robert
Twyford, Matthew
Tyler, Barry
Tym, Barry
Uxa, Michael
van de Ven, Jeffrey
van der Horst, Michel
van Dijk, Dick
Vilerio Rodriguez, Manuel
Walford, Peter
Walsh, Mark
Walsh, Richie
Walsh, Vernon
Walters, Ian
Ward, Ben
Ward, Harry
Watts, Lee
Weaver, Darren
Wehder, Marvin
Welding, James
White, Eddie
Whitworth, Lee
Wike, Arron
Wilkinson, Alan
Williams, Bradley
Williams, Ricky
Williams, Trevor
Wilson, David
Wilson, Mark
Withers, Ian
Wood, Andrew
Woodhouse, Luke
Woods, Brian
Worsley, Jonathan
Yamada, Yuki
York, Michael
Young, James
Come on son . The Duke