Five players to watch for the rest of the 2024 PDC darts season; Paul Nicholson looks at those under the radar who have shown real promise

By Paul Nicholson

Darts

Sat June 22, 2024 · 5M ago

At halfway point of the season Paul Nicholson picks out five players under the radar who could shine in the next six months.

WESSEL NIJMAN

94.90

Wessel was the first person to beat Luke Littler on the European Tour and he’ll always keep that on his CV for sure! It would have been a really difficult start to the year knowing that everyone was looking at him and thinking about his past suspension for match fixing but he’s let his talent do the talking since then and I see a player who has got endless potential.

He's got the benefit of the Development Tour like Gian Van Veen who has had for the last couple of years and when you constantly thrive on that tour it helps you transition to the main tour much easier and naturally. If you look at his numbers on the Pro Tour this season, he’s over 95.5 after 24 games played which ranks him at 12 overall out of everyone. That has got to be encouraging.

CAMERON MENZIES

96.37 seasonal average

Cameron is averaging over 96 for the season and has produced some superb performances. When he gets to European Tour events, he looks at home on the stage but we shouldn’t be surprised by that considering the experience he built up in the WDF.

I really do believe that Fallon Sherrock is having a really good effect on him and it might not be too long before they are winning titles on the same weekends.

We need to start taking Cameron Menzies seriously – but he also needs to take himself seriously because there is no telling what level he can attain. He's got a monstrous ceiling in his locker and he’s been showing us that on Tour this season.

If he can harness his skills and talent and maintain the right approach for an entire tournament, success and titles will come. His punctuality isn’t brilliant and it’s these areas of his career he needs to brush up on to give himself the best chance of fulfilling his rich potential.

Some people feel he comes across a bit of a fool at times and a bit preoccupied with trying to be the entertainer but every player would not respond well to being stringently turned into a professional ‘robot’. We’d lose something from Cameron’s game so I think it’s important he stays true to himself as well.

DARYL GURNEY

93.44 seasonal average

We've been beating the drum for Daryl Gurney for two years now to return his former heights because there’s definitely something coming into his game. His levels are improving and he impressed me by reaching the final of a recent Players Championship event, only to be denied by Alan Soutar in a deciding leg.

He's got the brain for it, he's got the desire and he's obviously putting in the work. He's got a slightly different network around him now following a change in management and I think now that he's getting used to the new circumstances, major improvement is around the corner for Daryl.

He's got new approaches on the dartboard as well such as using 18s a bit more, which shows his ambition to evolve his game and make changes needed to remain competitive with the very best.

Daryl has never been a player who wins a massive amount of floor titles or European Tour events - he tends to pop in majors so don’t be surprised to see a deep run at the World Matchplay.

LISA ASHTON

The women’s scene has been dominated by Beau Greaves and Fallon Sherrock over the last couple of years and Lisa has somewhat fallen off peoples radar.

She’s had surgery in the last 12 months so it won’t have been an easy period watching everybody else take over. So you can't tell me that winning two Women’s Series titles on a weekend when everyone was at their best wasn’t a big deal.

When we go to Blackpool for the Women's Matchplay there's going to be a lot of chat about Greaves, Sherrock and Noah Lynn. But I get the feeling that Lisa has got unfinished business in Blackpool and she might spring a surprise.

CHRIS DOBEY

1 title
96.73 seasonal average

Chris Dobey has played fantastically this season and around the top five in the averages. Over the last couple of years he’s been climbing the stats charts and he also hits a hell of a lot of 180s – so everything is trending in the right direction at encouraging pace.

If you look at the way he performed when he won his title at Players Championship 7, the numbers were frightening for a daily campaign. He had two 100+ plus averages, but one was 106, one was nearly 110 and his ‘bad game’ was 95.

We're talking about a player that has got unfinished business, and maybe a bit of redemption on his mind considering what happened at the quarter finals of the World Championship against Rob Cross. He hasn't moaned about it or dwelled on it, he’s just got back to work and kept honest with himself.

He’s starting to play darts arguably than ever before and he’s more ready for a major run in the coming months of the season for sure.

There are other players in his category like Damon Heta and Danny Noppert but I feel Dobey could pop the most.