Matthew Edgar previews the UK Open and picks his ones to look at at Butlin’s Minehead Resort from February 28 to March 2.
The distinctive multi-board match will see PDC Tour Card Holders competing throughout three days of motion alongside PDC Novice Qualifiers and high gamers from the 2024 Winmau Problem Tour and Improvement Tour Orders of Advantage.
The 160-player discipline will see Tour Card Holders enter throughout the primary 4 rounds, based mostly on their PDC Order of Advantage place following the Gamers Championship double-header in Rosmalen.
The game’s greatest names will start their title bids in spherical 4, together with reigning champion Dimitri Van den Bergh, world No 1 Luke Humphries and world champion Luke Littler.
Former champions Michael van Gerwen, Nathan Aspinall, Peter Wright, Danny Noppert, James Wade, Gary Anderson and Andrew Gilding can even enter the occasion on the fourth spherical stage.
Edgar, nicknamed ‘Prime Time’, appeared on the newest version of the Darts Present Podcast with Abigail Davies and host Emma Paton to debate his picks on the match, which is sometimes called the “FA Cup of darts”.
Beau Greaves
“Problem Tour, Improvement Tour, Girls’s Collection – she’s high of all these three orders of benefit with £17,000 value of revenue to this point. Should you add within the WDF stuff, then she’s the second most cash earned by any darts participant in 2025 to this point and he or she’s enjoying so nicely. We have seen her play on the ProTour now. She had an important recreation towards Josh Rock however she’s received her palms full towards Stefan Bellmont. He is a top quality participant and it will likely be No 2 vs No 2 on the Challenger Tour. Bellmont was a latest semi-finalist on the ProTour.
“Beau goes to be a type of who will probably be feared and supported nicely by the group. She has the capabilities of really profitable the match.”
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Greaves dismantled Cameron Menzies 5-1 to safe her first win finally 12 months’s Grand Slam of Darts
Ryan Searle
Edgar would like to see Ryan Seale decide up a serious title
“He at all times performs nicely in the beginning of the 12 months. I’ve by no means spoken to Ryan in all of the years that I’ve know him and be concerned with darts as a lot as he’s now. He is now talking rather a lot in interviews about how he does not actually put effort in, and he is proper, he does not! We have shared lodge rooms collectively and I might be up at 9 o’clock, we have a board up within the room, I might be practising and he’ll be enjoying Mario Kart. We would get to 11 o’clock and I might be saying ‘we have to get downstairs as a result of it is beginning in an hour’ and he’ll nonetheless be enjoying Mario Kart. Then he’d roll off the bed, have a wash, prepare, go down and hit 100 averages. It is like naked minimal, however excessive output. So what’s he going to be like when he begins placing effort in?
“He is really spending time within the apply room, so I am actually to see the place this goes for Ryan. I might like to see him decide up a title.”
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Seale pinned this beautiful 164 checkout on the best way to defeating Matt Campbell within the second spherical of the World Darts Championship
Josh Rock
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Josh Rock surprised Michael van Gerwen with a nine-darter on the Grand Slam of Darts earlier than Van Gerwen went on to win 10-8 in a traditional
“I am actually concerned with Josh on the minute. He burst on the scene after which final 12 months I observed an actual technical flaw began to creep in. When he drew the darts again, he froze. He was messing with the dart in hand, the fingers rolling on the dart, and I used to be beginning to suppose he was growing dartitis. Then I watched him in the beginning of this 12 months and it is gone, it is fluent, it is free, it appears to be like good, and I would not be shocked if Josh Rock goes again to what we noticed a few years in the past.
“I believe he’ll have an important season.”
Connor Scutt
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Connor Scutt hit successive ton plus finishes to dominate Ben Robb of their World Darts Championship opener
“Once we’re speaking about high quality wanted, flexibility, and the flexibility to play for an extended time frame, I’ve by no means seen anybody so devoted to apply and likewise the standard at which he performs with. I’ve by no means seen somebody hit so many 180s in my life, and I have been round gamers like Michael van Gerwen, Phil Taylor, Luke Humphries, Ryan Searle – large 180 hitters. It was unbelievable. I believe he might be an actual darkish horse on this one.”
Dom Taylor
“I used to be protecting the ProTour final week and I did not cowl any of his video games till he received to the semi-finals. He was averaging 103 for the day – for the day! I believe he can do this on the massive stage. I am to see how he will get on as a result of he’s going to be feared.”
The place does the Premier League head subsequent?
The Premier League continues with Evening 4 in Exeter tonight after which Evening 5 in Brighton on Thursday, March 6 Gerwyn Worth and Michael van Gerwen lock horns in a repeat of the 2023 Premier League closing on Evening 5, with Luke Littler or Chris Dobey awaiting the winner within the final 4. Watch Evening 5 of Premier League Darts, The Brighton Centre, reside on Sky Sports activities Predominant Occasion and Sky Sports activities+ stream with NOW.
Sky Sports activities will as soon as once more be the house of the Premier League in 2025, with each night time completely reside together with the World Matchplay, World Grand Prix, Grand Slam of Darts and extra! Stream darts and extra high sport with NOW
