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PDC Qualifying School: 19 Tour Cards up for grabs as 397 players head to Wigan

By Chris Hammer

19:32 · FRI January 18, 2019

There will be 397 players bidding to earn the 19 PDC Tour Cards up for grabs at the UK Qualifying School in Wigan from January 17-20.

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We have the full list of players below as well as the format of qualifying school, while our Chris Hammer also picks out 10 who we reckon stand a particularly good chance of winning one and the latest Sky Bet odds.

What is the format of Q School and how to players win Tour Cards?

The entrants will battle it out in a best-of-nine legs knockout format every day at the Robin Park Tennis Centre, with the final two players remaining at the end of each one being handed a Tour Card.

In addition, entrants will earn ranking points per victory in each full round of the event (which does not include byes), and they will be used to form the UK Q School Order of Merit, from which the top 11 players will also win Tour Cards.

Meanwhile, there were 11 players who earned a PDC Tour card at the European Qualifying School - find out who they were by clicking here.

What is the points system for the Order of Merit?

Players must reach the last 128 each day, which is effectively two match wins unless you receive a bye in the first round, to win a point.

Every win after that is another point so losing in the last 64 is two points, last 32 is three points, losing in the last 16 is four points, losing in the last eight is five points and losing in the final four is six points.

It's hard to say how many points will be enough to finish in the top 11 but you'd have thought players will be aiming at around 12.

Who are the big names competing at Q School?

The three-time BDO World Champion Glen Durrant, who emulated Eric Bristow's record of winning three successive Lakeside crowns on Sunday, heads the entries but there are no shortage of other familiar names from both organisations.

Former three-time world champion and regular Sky Sports commentator John Part is attempting to win through Q School once again, having successfully gone through the process two years ago, while Kevin Painter , Kirk Shepherd, Colin Osborne, Barrie Bates, Richie Burnett, Mark Walsh, Andy Hamilton Wes Newton are among those giving it a crack.

The latter two, of course, were on the BDO circuit last season and both suffered preliminary-round exits at the Lakeside.

Recent World Championship participants Aden Kirk and Stephen Burton are also having to go to Q School along with Jamie Caven, Andy Jenkins, Joe Murnan, David Pallett and Andrew Gilding.

Aside from Durrant, the other big names from the BDO bidding to earn a spot on the PDC Tour for the first time include Scott Waites, Mark McGeeney, Jim Williams, Conan Whitehead and Kyle McKinstry. In total there are 19 players who competed at the Lakeside that are heading to Q School.

There are plenty of female entries too, with Lisa Ashton, Anastasia Dobromyslova, Deta Hedman, Lorraine Winstanley and Fallon Sherrock bidding for what would be a landmark PDC Tour Card.

International hopefuls in action in Wigan include four players who starred in the 2018/19 World Championship; Brazil's Diogo Portela, Hong Kong's Royden Lam, India's Nitin Kumar and American Chuck Puleo.

Who stands the best chance of winning a PDC Tour Card?

If you try and predict the 19 names who'll win a Tour Card, I'd say you'll do well to get three or four right. I'll pick 10 and I'll be happy with two correct. It's for this reason I wouldn't advise betting on the markets that are available, but for interest I've included the Sky Bet prices 'to earn a Tour card'.

Most darts fans will expect Glen Durrant (1/3) to earn his first crack at the PDC tour and although there's no denying he's one of the class acts in the field, this is a new experience for him and a best-of-nine leg format is a bit of leveller to say the least.

Coming through a 397-man field on any day will take some doing - as well as a little fortune and luck of the draw - so I'd say he's got more of a chance of grabbing one of those Order of Merit places should he maintain the consistency we saw most recently at the Lakeside.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Jim Williams (7/4) who I'm a big fan of in the BDO - as you might already know from my preview of the Lakeside - but if he can score as well as he did last week, I think he'll be more than a match for many PDC players.

Staying with the BDO hopefuls but I couldn't help but be impressed, like many others were, with Kyle McKinstry (11/4), who backed up his impressive 2018 with a run to the quarter-finals at the Lakeside.

Sure, there were times where he found himself in danger against lesser opponents - such as another Q School hopeful in David Cameron - but when he was on, he looked very dangerous. He lost to Durrant 5-2 in sets but only lose four fewer legs in a closer match than the scoreline suggested.

I'm very interested to see how Scott Waites (2/1) gets on but then there's also BDO number one Mark McGeeney in the field - surely they can't ALL get through? Conan Whitehead and Scott Baker also raised eyebrows at the Lakeside and they too are heading to Wigan.

You may argue I'm falling into the 'recent memory' trap but nobody can deny the standard of the BDO World Championship wasn't 'that' far off the PDC when you take out the superstar performances from the likes of Michael van Gerwen, Gary Anderson and Michael Smith. The tournament average was 88.91 compared to 92.19, the checkout percentage was 34.99% to 37.54% and average darts per leg was 16.29 to 15.56.

If those stronger BDO players produce their best darts then they shouldn't be fearing many of those names below.

Experience will also play a key role - like it always does. Trying to earn a PDC Tour Card will be more of a pressurised situation for some more than others, especially those trying to get a career back on track or those trying to make their early steps as a professional.

Two years ago three-time world champion John Part, who is also a regular on the Sporting Life Darts Podcasts of course, had to go through Q School and after earning a spot he cited his experience as being key, albeit not of that particular event. He knew it wasn't a career making day for him - more of an occasion to see what he was still capable of and therefore wasn't affected by the same kind of nerves that others were.

Apart from a memorable run the the UK Open quarter-finals last year, he'd be the first to say he didn't achieve as much with his Tour Card as he would have hoped, but he's here in Wigan again and I really wouldn't be surprised to see him outfox his way through the field again. Maybe my heart is ruling my head a bit on this one, but hey, there's no bets on the line here!

Stephen Burton (5/2), who competed at the recent PDC World Championship after holding his nerve during the last-gasp qualifying event, Scott Taylor, Richie Burnett, Royden Lam, Prakash Jiwa, Lee Bryant, Ritchie Edhouse, Kirk Shepherd, Jamie Bain, Steve Hine, Paul Rowley, Scott Darbyshire, Chris Quantock and Darren Johnson are also here again having failed to cement a place in the world's top 64 after earning a card two years ago but they do have the benefit of knowing how to cope with this environment.

I'll have to go with Burton, who also reached the last 16 of the Players Championship Finals, from this list given that he's very much a form horse compared to many others but that's not to say I'm dismissing the others.

Andrew Gilding (2/1) is a pretty safe pick. Goldfinger finished 72nd on the Order of Merit, with his late run of decent results on the Pro Tour being far too little too late, while he did defeat Durrant during the Grand Slam of Darts groups stage when playing some pretty handy darts.

There's a lot of positives to be said about players who have enjoying the winning feeling on a regular basis on the PDC Challenge and Development Tours and they'll go to Q School in a much better frame of mind than those whose confidence took a battering on the main tour.

Cameron Menzies (6/4) is highly thought of and finished fourth on the Challenge Tour Order of Merit, thanks largely to a maiden title back in September, while he did have a couple of nice little runs to the last 16 of Players Championship events last year.

Teenage star Nathan Rafferty (3/1) hit the headlines last year when dumping Peter Wright out of the UK Open and since then he finished 12th on the Development Tour Order of Merit, winning one event back in March but also reached two semi-finals as recently as November. Another teenager to look out for is Jarrod Cole, who actually finished one place above Rafferty on the Development Tour and also reached a quarter-final in a Players Championship event.

My final pick is Diogo Portela (7/2). Admittedly the highly-likeable 'Braziliant' endured a nightmare 2018 but prior to the World Championship he put his problems down to issues with his grip which he'd since sorted out.

He then produced a spirited display against Ron Meulenkamp in which he led 2-0 before losing 3-2 and I'm hoping we see a lot more of his potential, smile and character over the next two years.

Can you bet on Q School?

Sky Bet have a 'To Earn a 2019 PDC Tour Card' market, with Glen Durrant priced at 1/3 favourite to win one. Cameron Menzies and Jim Williams can both be backed at 6/4 while Jamie Hughes is well fancied at 7/4.

Lakeside runner-up Scott Waites is 2/1 - the same price as Richie Burnett - while one of Chris Hammer's fancies Diogo Portella is available at 7/2.

Click here now for all the players in Sky Bet's market

UK Qualifying School Entries

Carl Abbiss
Jerry Abbott
Lance Adams
Robert Adnams
David Adshead
David Airey
Cameron Anderson
Craig Anderson
Lisa Ashton
Dave Askew
Jason Askew
Martin Atkins (Leeds)
Martin Atkins (Wigan)
Daniel Ayres
Matthew Bacon
Richard Baillie
Jamie Bain
Scott Baker
Mark Barilli
Jamie Barrowman
Chas Barstow
James Barton
Barrie Bates
Tom Baughan
Max Baulcomb
Mark Baxter
Sean Bell
Christopher Bent
Darren Beveridge
Gary Blades
Nathan Boon
Sam Booth
William Borland
Philip Borthwick
Andy Boulton
John Bowles
Martin Bradbury
Kenneth Bramall
Derek Brand
Shaun Bridle
Rachel Brooks
Justin Broton
Anthony Brown
Darron Brown
Paul Brown
John Bryan
Lee Bryant
Lee Budgen
Adam Bull
Joshua Burksfield
Richie Burnett
Ben Burton
Stephen Burton
Mitch Butler
David Calvert
David Cameron
Aidan Campbell
Robert Canham
Sam Cankett
Phil Canty
Nathan Careless
Gavin Carlin
Francis Carragher
Shaun Carroll
Anthony Carter
Keith Carter
Aaron Castagnette
Jamie Caven
Andy Chalmers
Spencer Chapman
Aaron Chapple
Matt Clark
Ricky Clarke
Brett Claydon
Rob Clayton
Jake Clifford
John Cockburn
Jarred Cole
Tony Cole
Reece Colley
Robert Collins
Frankie Collopy
Stuart Comerford
William Cook
Jacob Cooksey
Richard Corner
Derek Coulson
Gary Court
Daniel Cox
Jordan Crabtree
Sam Cromwell
Logan Crooks
Zak Cross
John Crossley
Paul Croucher
Jason Cullen
Mark Cullen
Scott Dale
Scott Darbyshire
Antony Darlow
John Davey
Ben Davies
Darren Davies
Rhys Davies
Joe Davis
Paul Dawkins
Daniel Day
Matthew Dennant
Nathan Derry
Marc Dewsbury
Jack Dickinson
Anastasia Dobromyslova
Brian Doran
Kevin Dowling
Cameron Doyle
Dylan Duo
Glen Durrant
Stuart Dutton
Tony Dyke
Ritchie Edhouse
Dafydd Edwards
David Edwards
Kevin Edwards
Richie Edwards
Brad Ellis
Mark Esposito
David Evans
Kieran Evans
Lee Evans
Steve Evans
Dale Everett
George Fawcett
Michael Feasey
Steven Ferguson
Dean Finn
Peter Fisher
Allan Fitzpatrick
Andrew Foster
Wayne France
Callum Francis
Mark Frost
Nick Fullwell
Adam Gallett
Matt Gallett
Billy Gallie
Stephen Gallimore
Kevin Garcia
Barry Gardner
George Gardner
Jonathan Gardner
Keith Geraghty
Glenn Gibson
John Gibson
Craig Gilchrist
Andrew Gilding
Kris Glass
Andrew Glover
Adrian Gray
Oliver Green
Robbie Green
Thomas Gregory
Rhys Griffin
Shaun Griffiths
Jamie Guilfoyle
John Guy
Rees Hall
Brian Hallas
Andy Hamilton
Carl Hamilton
Corrine Hammond
Curtis Hammond
Dan Hand
Paul Hanvidge
Ricky Harding
Stephen Harradine
Michael Harrison
Kelvin Hart
Christopher Harvey
Rhys Hayden
Lee Hayes
Deta Hedman
Jamie Henry
Darren Herewini
Jonathan Hewitt
Sam Hewson
Mark Hickey
Ash Hilditch
Steve Hine
Aaron Holdstock
Ashley Holgate
Paul Holloway
Ryan Hope
Richie Howson
Adam Huckvale
Brian Hudson
Jamie Hughes
Sam Hunter
Michael Huntley
Ian Hurley
Andy Hutchings
Dean Hyde
Peter Jacques
Andy Jenkins
Dafydd Jenkins
Paul Jenkinson
Nick Jennings
Prakash Jiwa
Sonny Johal
Darren Johnson
Christopher Jones
Leighton Jones
Ryan Jones
Ian Jopling
Sean Jowers
Jon Jukes
Stuart Kellett
James Kempster
Ricky King
Aden Kirk
Veljko Knezevic
Nitin Kumar
David Ladley
Ting Chi Royden Lam
Jamie Landon
Kevin Lane
John Large
Daniel Lauby
Mark Lawrence
James Lawson
Daniel Lee
Ka Ho Leung
Ian Lever
John Lieber
Teng Shia Lim
Tommy Lishman
Colin Littlecott
Tom Lonsdale
Callum Loose
Eddie Lovely
Thomas Lovely
Martin Lukeman
Barry Lynn
Patrick Lynskey
Kenneth MacNeil
Jack Main
Jon Mansell
Jason Marriott
Shaun Matthews
Daniel Maystone
Michael McBain
Michael Mccloskey
Kevin Mcdonnell
Ian McFarlane
Mark McGeeney
Andre Luke McGill
Mark McGrath
Shane McGuirk
Lewis McGurn
Jim McKevitt
Kyle McKinstry
Jimmy McKirdy
Stephen McNally
Ian Meaker
Liam Meek
Cameron Menzies
Chris Millward
Peter Mitchell
Tony Mitchell
Barry Morgan
Craig Morgan
Joe Murnan
Jason Murphy
Ryan Murray
Coni Nagi
Eikichi Nakanishi
Terry Nash
Paul Neate
Andy Neocleous
Dion Newman
Wes Newton
Kelvin Nixon
Dean Norman
Andrew Northcott
Mike Norton
Martin O'Boyle
Damien O'Driscoll
Keith O'Neill
Colin Osborne
Dean Owen
Matt Padgett
Kevin Painter
Joey Palfreyman
David Pallett
Ryan Palmer
Dyson Parody
John Part
David Patterson
Adam Paxton
Reece Pearse
Darren Penhall
Paul Phillips
Chris Pick
Darryl Pilgrim
Darren Place
Diogo Portela
Mario Portela
John Power
Andrew Poynton
Martin Pratt
Simon Preston
Lewis Pride
Dave Prins
Chuck Puleo
Christopher Quantock
Craig Quinn
Rohit Rabadia
Nathan Rafferty
Paul Redfern
Dean Reynolds
Nathan Richards
Robert Rickwood
Ross Rimmer
Reece Robinson
Keith Rooney
Paul Rowley
Sean Ryan
Callan Rydz
Roger Scrivens
Ronald Seddon
Jaikob Selby-Rivas
Adam Shanks
Kirk Shepherd
Fallon Sherrock
Kevin Simm
Joe Singleton
Damian Smith
Dennis Smith
Gavin Smith
James Smith
Justin Smith
Lee Smith
Steven Smith
Adam Stella
Aaron Stevens
Evander Stevenson
David Stokell
Stuart Stubbs
Hideyuki Sugita
Scott Sutton
Simon Tate
David Taylor
Scott Taylor
Ciaran Teehan
William Thexton
Kevin Thomas
Martin Thomas
Robert Thomson
Vince Tipple
Mick Todd
Stephen Tompkins
Scott Towers
Nathan Treadgold
Martyn Turner
Chris Vaughan
Wayne Wadsworth
Scott Waites
Jim Walker
Paul Walker
Brandon Walsh
Darren Walsh
Mark Walsh
Richie Walsh
Harry Ward
Chris Ware
Kerry Way
Chris White
Conan Whitehead
Mike Whitehead
Grant Whittaker
Carl Wilkinson
Brad Williams
Darren Williams
Jim Williams
Lee Williams
Marc Williams
Paul Williams
Ricky Williams
David Wilson
Jason Wilson
Stu Wilson
Lorraine Winstanley
Ian Withers
Gary Witty
Terry Wood
James Woodhouse
Brian Woods
Jonathan Worsley