
PDC Autumn Series Day Five: Draw for Players Championship 18
The draw has been revealed for the final day of the PDC Autumn Series as 127 players go for Players Championship 18 glory and £10,000.
It has been another successful week of covid-secure darts from the PDC as the sport continues its return to action. There have been eight different finalists so far and four different winners: Peter Wright, Damon Heta, Michael van Gerwen and Gerwyn Price.
Price, the champion on Tuesday, receives a bye to the second round due to Andy Hamilton withdrawing through illness. That is by virtue of his return to the top of the ProTour Order of Merit.
Three-time World Champion Michael van Gerwen takes on Wales’ Barrie Bates in the last 128, with world number two Wright meeting Dutchman Yordi Meeuwisse.
Heta enters his second day as a seed against Steve West, with the Australian looking to secure enough ranking points to see him qualify for November’s Grand Slam of Darts through the Autumn Series Order of Merit.
‘The African Warrior’ Devon Petersen has also enjoyed a fantastic week so far, coming agonisingly close to the Players Championship 17 title, and he plays Steve Lennon ahead of a potential second-round meeting with World Matchplay champion Dimitri Van den Bergh.
The man who finished top of the Premier League, Glen Durrant, has Wayne Jones for his opener with Gabriel Clemens and Simon Whitlock also on his board, while world number six Nathan Aspinall will play Kirk Shepherd.
ProTour specialist Krzysztof Ratajski plays his fellow Pole Krzysztof Kciuk with Mensur Suljović v Matt Clark also in that half of the draw.
The likes of Rob Cross, James Wade, Michael Smith and Daryl Gurney are all in the top half, and they take on Ryan Hogarth, Ryan Meikle, Max Hopp and Justin Pipe respectively.
Players Championship 18 is the final event counting to World Grand Prix qualification for players not involved in the German Darts Championship.
Of those just inside the cut-off, Kim Huybrechts meets Darius Labanauskas and Mervyn King takes on Harald Leitinger.
There are three players within £500 of the qualification places: Madars Razma, Jonny Clayton and Chris Dobey. ‘Razzmatazz’ plays William Borland, Welshman Clayton faces Steffen Siepmann and ‘Hollywood’ meets Steve Brown.
Play is scheduled to commence from 12pm local time in Germany (11am in the UK), with the action streamed live via PDCTV and various bookmakers’ websites.
PDC AUTUMN SERIES DAY FIVE
Players Championship 18
Wednesday, September 16
H+ Hotel, Niedernhausen, Germany
First Round
Vincent van der Voort v Derk Telnekes
Madars Razma v William Borland
Jamie Lewis v Geert Nentjes
Rob Cross v Ryan Hogarth
Reece Robinson v Benito van de Pas
Joe Cullen v Mike De Decker
Steve Brown v Chris Dobey
James Wade v Ryan Meikle
Joe Murnan v Boris Krčmar
Jonny Clayton v Steffen Siepmann
Scott Taylor v Adam Hunt
Daryl Gurney v Justin Pipe
Richard North v Jason Lowe
Jamie Hughes v Kai Fan Leung
Mickey Mansell v Vincent van der Meer
Nathan Aspinall v Kirk Shepherd
Jesús Noguera v Carl Wilkinson
Ross Smith v Scott Waites
Callan Rydz v Ricky Evans
José de Sousa v Marko Kantele
Aaron Beeney v Jelle Klaasen
Jermaine Wattimena v Conan Whitehead
Gavin Carlin v Steve Beaton
Michael van Gerwen v Barrie Bates
Brian Raman v Jan Dekker
Dirk van Duijvenbode v Jitse van der Wal
Graham Usher v John Henderson
Michael Smith v Max Hopp
Matthew Edgar v Karel Sedláček
Ryan Joyce v Mark McGeeney
Ron Meulenkamp v Justin Hood
Peter Wright v Yordi Meeuwisse
Rowby-John Rodriguez v Ted Evetts
Damon Heta v Steve West
Rob Collins v Scott Baker
Brendan Dolan v Darren Webster
Daniel Larsson v Andrew Gilding
Ryan Searle v Ryan Murray
Nathan Derry v Scott Mitchell
Mensur Suljović v Matt Clark
Christian Bunse v Josh Payne
Kim Huybrechts v Darius Labanauskas
Keegan Brown v Adrian Lewis
Danny Noppert v Robert Thornton
Nick Kenny v Andy Boulton
Stephen Bunting v Jeff Smith
Martin Schindler v Luke Humphries
Krzysztof Ratajski v Krzysztof Kciuk
Alan Tabern v Adrian Gray
Mervyn King v Harald Leitinger
William O’Connor v Peter Jacques
Dave Chisnall v James Wilson
David Pallett v Niels Zonneveld
Devon Petersen v Steve Lennon
Dimitri Van den Bergh v John Michael
Ian White v Arjan Konterman
Toni Alcinas v Martijn Kleermaker
Jeffrey de Zwaan v Bradley Brooks
Lisa Ashton v Luke Woodhouse
Glen Durrant v Wayne Jones
Maikel Verberk v Maik Kuivenhoven
Gabriel Clemens v Gary Blades
Simon Whitlock v Harry Ward
Format
First Round – Best of 11
Second Round – Best of 11
Third Round – Best of 11
Fourth Round – Best of 11
Quarter-Finals – Best of 11
Semi-Finals – Best of 13
Final – Best of 15
(Featured Image: Lawrence Lustig/PDC)
Jamie Cameron