Joe Hunt Tops Challenge Tour as Tour Cards and Ally Pally Places Are Decided

 

The 2026 PDC Challenge Tour reached its conclusion in Wigan with plenty still on the line going into the final weekend.

Two PDC Tour Cards were available through the final Order of Merit, alongside World Championship opportunities and, for the player finishing number one, a place in the Grand Slam of Darts.

By the end of Sunday, Joe Hunt had completed a superb late charge to finish top, Derek Coulson had secured the second Tour Card and the battle immediately behind them had gone right down to the wire.

Hunt times his run perfectly

Joe Hunt could hardly have picked a better time to hit top form.

He went into the closing weekend chasing Derek Coulson at the top of the standings, but victory in Challenge Tour 22 was followed by another title in Challenge Tour 23.

Hunt began Event 23 with a 5-0 win over Coulson and later produced a 109.56 average against Nathan Rafferty.

By the quarter-finals he was still going strong, edging Jack Aldridge 5-4 before beating Harrison Leigh 5-3 in the semi-final.

That set up a final against Jack Tweddell, and Hunt finished the job in convincing fashion with a 5-1 victory and a 99.48 average.

It was Hunt's fifth Challenge Tour title of the season and took him to £20,400 at the top of the final Order of Merit.

The reward is considerable.

Hunt earns a two-year PDC Tour Card for 2027 and 2028, while finishing number one also gives him a place in the Grand Slam of Darts.

It was a remarkable finish to the season and a reminder of how quickly the Challenge Tour picture can change when somebody strings together a series of deep runs.

Coulson gets the Tour Card his season deserved

For much of the closing part of the season, Derek Coulson had been the man everyone was chasing.

The final Sunday did not go his way, including that first-round defeat to Hunt in Event 23, but the work had already been done.

Coulson finished second on £15,500, comfortably clear of third place, and therefore joins Hunt in earning a two-year PDC Tour Card.

Hunt may have taken the number-one position at the end, but Coulson's consistency across the season ensured he still walked away with the main prize he had been chasing.

Morris and Klose separated by just £200

Behind the top two, things became much tighter.

Tommy Morris finished third on £12,450, with Daniel Klose fourth on £12,250.

Just £200 separated them after 24 Challenge Tour tournaments.

Morris gave himself an important boost in Event 23, beating Steve Lennon 5-3 in the quarter-final with a 98.30 average before losing 5-4 to Jack Tweddell in the semi-final.

Those extra winnings proved extremely important.

The final top four were:

Position	Player	Prize Money
1	Joe Hunt	£20,400
2	Derek Coulson	£15,500
3	Tommy Morris	£12,450
4	Daniel Klose	£12,250

The Challenge Tour also provides World Championship places, although players who qualify through a higher route do not take an additional place from the Challenge Tour allocation.

That matters because Hunt is in position to qualify for Alexandra Palace through the ProTour route.

As things stand, that puts Coulson and Morris into the Challenge Tour World Championship positions, with Klose next in line if Hunt's qualification comes through elsewhere.

For Klose, that could turn a £200 near miss into a World Championship appearance after all.

Williams wins the final event of the season

There was still one more tournament to play after Hunt had made his move at the top.

Challenge Tour 24 went to Patrik Williams.

Williams beat Jenson Remory 5-3 in the quarter-final before edging Sam Jackson 5-4 in the semi-final.

He then defeated Jack Aldridge 5-3 in the final, averaging 94.78.

The £3,000 winner's prize lifted Williams to 14th on the final Order of Merit on £6,600.

Aldridge also finished the season strongly, reaching the final and ending the campaign seventh on £8,150.

Plenty left wondering what one more run might have done

The final standings show just how costly one missed opportunity can be over the course of a Challenge Tour season.

Behind the leading four came Archie Self on £9,500, Tommy Lishman on £8,950, Jack Aldridge on £8,150, Jack Tweddell on £8,050, Daniel Ayres on £7,750 and Aden Kirk on £7,450.

Tweddell's late run was particularly impressive. He reached the final of Event 23 after beating Morris 5-4 in the semi-final before running into Hunt.

But once the season was finished, the biggest prizes had gone to Hunt and Coulson, while Morris and Klose were left separated by only £200.

Across 24 tournaments, that is an incredibly small margin.

One more route to Alexandra Palace

The Challenge Tour season finished on Sunday, but many of the same players were back in action on Monday for the UK & Ireland Tour Card Holder & Associate Member World Championship Qualifier.

This time there was no season-long Order of Merit.

There was one World Championship place available, and the only way to get it was to win the tournament.

That place went to Carl Wilson.

Wilson comes through the field

Wilson had not been one of the headline names going into the qualifier, but that did not matter once play began.

He beat Kevin Lane and Jack Vincent before surviving a very tight 6-5 match against Jack Aldridge.

Wilson then beat Robbie Martin 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals.

From there, the level of opposition became even tougher.

He defeated former Lakeside world champion Steve Beaton 7-5 and then beat Steve Lennon 7-3 in the semi-final.

That left one match between Wilson and a first appearance at Alexandra Palace.

Standing in his way was Shane McGuirk.

McGuirk falls one match short

McGuirk had put together an excellent run of his own.

He beat Christopher Wickenden in the last 16, Alan Norris in the quarter-final and then Mervyn King 7-5 in the semi-final.

The final was competitive too.

McGuirk produced the higher average, 93.88 compared with Wilson's 89.27, but Wilson won the match 7-4 to secure the World Championship place.

For Wilson, it means a first appearance at Alexandra Palace.

For McGuirk, it was another painful near miss after reaching the final of this qualifier for the second successive year.

Beaton, King and Lennon also go close

There were some very familiar names deep into the qualifier.

Steve Beaton's hopes ended in the quarter-finals against Wilson.

Mervyn King reached the semi-finals before losing to McGuirk, while Steve Lennon made the other semi-final.

Alan Norris, Nick Kenny and Gary Jackson were also among those reaching the last eight.

But this was a tournament where there was only one prize.

Everyone other than Wilson went home knowing they had fallen somewhere short of the one result that mattered.

A weekend that changed careers

The final Challenge Tour weekend and Monday's World Championship qualifier settled a number of major questions.

Joe Hunt finishes the year as Challenge Tour number one, earns a two-year Tour Card and takes a place in the Grand Slam.

Derek Coulson finishes second and earns the other two-year Tour Card.

Tommy Morris has secured his place among the leading Challenge Tour players in the World Championship race.

Daniel Klose finished just £200 behind him and is currently next in line if Hunt qualifies through the ProTour route.

And Carl Wilson produced perhaps the most dramatic story of all, coming through a huge one-day qualifier to book his first appearance at Alexandra Palace.

For some players, the weekend brought the biggest reward of their careers.

For others, an entire 24-event Challenge Tour season came down to a few hundred pounds, one deciding leg or one missed opportunity.

That is how fine the margins can be at this level.

Did the BDO/WDF Become Weak—or Did the PDC Become Exceptional?

 

For many darts fans, the answer will seem obvious.

The PDC World Championship is regarded as the pinnacle of the sport. It has the biggest names, the greatest financial rewards and a level of global attention that the old BDO World Championship—and its successor, the WDF World Championship—cannot match.

But has the standard of performance at the BDO and WDF championships really been as far behind as many people assume?

I have been analysing World Championship standards across nearly 50 years of darts using one simple measure: the average of the ten highest individual match averages recorded during each championship.

This is not a measure of the strength of the entire field. It does not account for prize money, tournament depth, the number of professional players or the difficulty of winning the title.

What it does attempt to capture is the peak performance level reached at each championship.

Rather than judging a tournament solely by its champion or final, it considers the ten best individual displays produced across the event. The same player can therefore appear more than once if they recorded several of the championship’s leading averages.

The results produced some surprising findings. In my view, they challenge some of the assumptions regularly made about the relative playing standards of the two World Championships.

The First Surprise: The BDO Was Consistently Strong

When fans discuss the BDO’s golden years, names such as Eric Bristow, John Lowe, Jocky Wilson and Bob Anderson immediately come to mind.

There is often a perception that this period represented a significantly higher standard than anything seen in the WDF game today.

The data does not entirely support that conclusion.

The average of the BDO’s ten highest match performances reached 97.23 in 1985 and regularly sat in the mid-90s throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.

The 1985 tournament included several exceptional displays. Keith Deller became the first player to record a three-dart World Championship average above 100, producing 100.30 despite losing his quarter-final to John Lowe. Lowe averaged 97.83 in the same match, while Bristow recorded 99.66 in his semi-final.

However, strong top-end performance levels were not confined to that celebrated era.

The BDO’s figure reached 98.57 in 1999, 99.34 in 2002 and 97.45 as late as 2015. The modern WDF World Championship returned figures of 93.39 in 2024 and 95.14 in 2025.

There are naturally fluctuations from one year to another, but the overall picture is one of considerable consistency.

The more I examined the numbers, the harder it became to support the idea that the leading standard at the BDO—and later the WDF—had simply collapsed.

The Split Did Not Create an Immediate Gulf

Another common assumption is that the 1990s split immediately transferred virtually all of the game’s quality to the newly formed organisation that eventually became the PDC.

Again, the data presents a more nuanced picture.

The first PDC World Championship was held in 1994. Fourteen years later, the difference between the championships’ leading performances was still surprisingly small.

In 2008, the BDO World Championship recorded a top-ten performance average of 95.31. The equivalent PDC figure was 96.29.

The difference was less than one point.

That does not mean the two organisations were identical. By then, the PDC had developed a stronger commercial position and was attracting many of the sport’s leading professionals.

Nevertheless, if we look specifically at the ten best match performances produced at the two World Championships, there was still remarkably little between them.

Even well over a decade after the split, the highest level reached on the two stages remained broadly comparable in certain years.

The Turning Point Arrived in 2009

If there is one year when the PDC begins to pull decisively away using this particular measure, it appears to be 2009.

The average of its ten highest match performances increased from 96.29 in 2008 to approximately 104.02 in 2009.

That is an extraordinary single-year rise.

When we look beneath that figure, one name appears repeatedly: Phil Taylor.

Taylor produced a 110.94 average in the final, 108.80 in his quarter-final, 103.44 in the semi-final, 102.57 in the second round and 101.63 in the last 16.

Five of the tournament’s ten leading match averages belonged to the same player.

Raymond van Barneveld also contributed several three-figure performances, including a 106.68 in the quarter-finals and 101.18 in the final.

It is difficult to believe that the sudden increase and Taylor’s dominance were unrelated.

The PDC had undoubtedly developed a stronger collection of leading players, but its 2009 figure was also heavily influenced by one exceptional individual producing five elite performances within the same tournament.

That raises an important question about how the data should be interpreted.

Was the widening difference purely evidence of the PDC’s greater organisational strength and depth? Or was it partly caused by arguably the greatest player of all time dragging the championship’s peak numbers upwards?

The answer is probably a combination of both.

The Taylor Era Changed the Comparison

Between 2009 and 2013, the PDC consistently outperformed the BDO using this measure, often by a margin of between six and ten points.

By this stage, there was no realistic doubt that the PDC had become the stronger championship.

However, something important can be overlooked when that period is described simply as the decline of the BDO.

The BDO was still generally producing top-ten performance averages in the low-to-mid 90s. That was broadly consistent with much of its previous history.

Its standard had not necessarily collapsed. Instead, the PDC had accelerated away from it.

Taylor played an enormous role in that change, but he was not operating entirely alone. Van Barneveld, Adrian Lewis, Gary Anderson and other leading professionals helped create a championship in which three-figure averages became increasingly common.

The comparison had changed.

The BDO was often delivering similar leading standards to those it had produced for decades. The problem was that maintaining those standards was no longer enough to remain close to the rapidly improving PDC.

Then Came Michael van Gerwen

If Taylor accelerated the separation between the championships, Michael van Gerwen helped take it to another level.

The biggest gap in this dataset occurred in 2017.

The ten highest PDC match averages that year produced an average of approximately 107.07. The BDO equivalent was 95.88—a difference of around 11.19 points.

Van Gerwen’s 114.05 against Raymond van Barneveld in the semi-final remains the highest match average ever recorded at a World Championship.

Remarkably, Van Barneveld averaged 109.34 in defeat.

Van Gerwen also averaged 108.06 in the final and 105.24 in the second round. Gary Anderson contributed performances of 107.68, 105.90 and 104.93, while Cristo Reyes, Peter Wright and Darren Webster also appeared among the championship’s ten leading averages.

This was no longer simply one extraordinary player dominating the list.

Van Gerwen was setting a remarkable standard, but numerous opponents and fellow contenders were also producing averages that would once have been considered exceptional.

The PDC had reached a level of scoring that had never previously been seen across a World Championship.

Importantly, though, the BDO’s figure of 95.88 was not particularly unusual when viewed against its own history. It sat comfortably within the range produced during many earlier championships.

Once again, the story appears to be less about the BDO suddenly becoming much weaker and more about the PDC becoming extraordinarily strong.

What About the Modern WDF Championship?

The BDO World Championship ended after the 2020 edition, with the WDF staging its first World Championship in 2022.

The modern tournament is sometimes dismissed as a shadow of the old Lakeside championship. Its prize money, profile and playing depth cannot currently match the PDC, but the leading performance figures are more competitive historically than that description might suggest.

The 2024 WDF World Championship produced a top-ten average of 93.39. That increased to 95.14 in 2025.

The latter figure is clearly below the level of the modern PDC World Championship. However, it is comparable with numerous BDO championships staged across the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.

That does not prove that the present WDF field is as deep as the strongest BDO fields.

A top-ten average cannot tell us how strong the 30th, 40th or 50th-best player in a tournament might be. Nor does it measure how many serious title contenders entered each event.

It does, however, show that the modern WDF World Championship is still producing leading match performances within the historical range associated with Lakeside.

In other words, the peak standard is not necessarily far removed from the BDO championships remembered so fondly by many supporters.

The major difference is that the WDF now exists alongside a PDC that has reached an unprecedented level.

Measuring Peak Quality Rather Than Complete Depth

This distinction matters.

If the question is which championship currently has the stronger overall field, the answer is unquestionably the PDC.

The leading players in the world compete there, the prize money is vastly greater and the depth of professional quality extends much further through the draw.

The results of this analysis should not be used to argue otherwise.

But if the question is whether the BDO and WDF World Championships have always been dramatically weaker at their highest performance level, the answer becomes much less straightforward.

A comparison of the ten best match averages suggests that the peak level remained relatively close for many years after the split.

When a major gap eventually emerged, it was not caused solely by the BDO suddenly losing all of its quality. It also coincided with the PDC producing Taylor at his most dominant, followed by Van Gerwen and an increasingly powerful group of full-time professionals.

That is a substantially different story.

The Littler Factor

Many people believe that Luke Littler’s emergence could push the PDC even further ahead.

That may happen in future, but the data suggests that the separation has not yet grown significantly beyond the peak of the Van Gerwen era.

The PDC advantage was approximately 11.19 points in 2017. According to my dataset, the difference in 2024 was 11.09.

For now, the modern era led by Littler and Luke Humphries appears to be maintaining the extraordinary standards reached during Van Gerwen’s peak years rather than extending the gap dramatically.

Littler could still have a huge long-term influence on the sport. His emergence may inspire greater participation, raise expectations and push his leading rivals to improve.

However, the PDC was already operating at an exceptional level before his arrival.

Going into this project, I expected to find clear evidence that the BDO—and later the WDF—had steadily weakened over time.

Instead, I found something rather different.

The leading standard at the BDO and WDF championships appears to have remained surprisingly consistent across nearly five decades.

The strongest performances have generally fallen within a relatively narrow range, whether they were produced during the eras of Bristow and Lowe, Martin Adams and Ted Hankey, Jim Williams and Scott Mitchell, or the present WDF generation.

There have been stronger and weaker individual editions, but the data does not show a simple, continuous collapse.

The much clearer movement has occurred within the PDC.

From 2009 onwards, driven initially by Taylor and later by Van Gerwen, Anderson, Humphries, Littler and a much deeper group of elite professionals, the PDC World Championship accelerated to levels never previously seen in darts.

That does not make the two championships equal.

The PDC World Championship is comfortably stronger overall, and its depth extends far beyond the handful of leading performances examined here.

But the figures do challenge the idea that the BDO/WDF World Championship became dramatically weaker than everything that came before it.

Perhaps the better question is not simply whether the BDO and WDF became weak.

Perhaps it is whether the PDC became exceptionally strong.

The evidence suggests that it did.

The First Ever World Championship 2025/26 Darts Sticker Book

 

The darts world has just taken a step into collectable culture with the launch of the new World Championship 2025/26 sticker book, which is the first official album of its kind. For years, football fans have enjoyed Panini-style sticker collections, but darts has never had a fully dedicated tournament album. That finally changes this season.

This new release covers every player taking part in the 2025/26 PDC World Darts Championship. Each competitor has their own sticker slot, complete with profile details, stats, and a high-quality action photo. There are also pages for iconic moments, records, and tournament landmarks, adding an extra layer of nostalgia.

What makes the album stand out is how accessible it feels. Whether you’re a casual fan, a serious collector, or someone who loves filling an album during the festive period, it’s a fun new way to connect with the biggest event in darts. Kids and adults alike will enjoy the chase for those rare shiny stickers and last-page completions.

It’s also a clever move for the sport. A sticker book brings darts closer to mainstream sports culture and introduces a new generation of fans to the players. It might even become a yearly tradition if this one takes off, and judging by early interest, it almost certainly will.

This could end up being one of the most collectable darts items of the year, especially as the very first edition.

Details are on the Panini Official website, although demand has created out of stock messages quickly. Amazon and Ebay seem the best places to buy currently. Although I found my Sticker book in a local supermarket. 

Weekend Round-Up: Grand Slam Glory, World Championship Qualifiers, and More

 The PDC Grand Slam of Darts wrapped up with a cracking final. It was the battle of the two Lukes ,Luke Littler and Luke Humphries, in a match that lived up to their world-ranking status. Littler came out on top, winning 16–11, and by reaching the final, he made history as the youngest player ever to become PDC World No. 1. Both now head to Minehead for the Players Championship Finals, where the draw could see them meet again in another blockbuster final.

It wasn’t just about the Grand Slam this weekend. Across Europe, five players booked their spots at Ally Pally for December: Cristo Reyes, Adam Gawlas, Krzysztof Kciuk, Boris Krcmar, and Andy Baetens. They’ll be joined by Mitsuhiko Tatsunami, who secured his place by winning the Japan Steel Darts Tour. 

Great to see Reyes back on the big stage as only days ago, I wrote about Spanish players making their mark, and this proves the point.

One of the biggest talking points of the weekend came from the JDC Unsigned event, where 13-year-old Harley Glycos hit a nine-dart leg, becoming only the third player ever to do so at a JDC event. Even more impressive, he beat Luke Littler’s record as the youngest player to achieve this feat. A name to watch for the future.

In the WDF, Jenson Walker claimed the Malta Open, beating Cliff Prior in the final. Walker’s decision to focus on WDF events this season has paid off, and he looks like a serious contender for the upcoming WDF World Championships.

The Amateur Darts Circuit (ADC) saw over 300 players take part in the Vault Finals weekend, proving just how strong the amateur scene is right now. With a £10,000 prize for the winner, this is no small achievement for a non-professional event. The eventual champion was Chas Barstow, who produced stunning performances, hitting 100+ averages in both his quarter-final and semi-final matches before defeating Martin Grearson in the final. A huge statement from Barstow and a reminder that the amateur circuit is packed with talent.

What a weekend for darts history made, records broken, and new stars emerging. Next stop: Minehead for the Players Championship Finals 

 

Forgotten Women of Darts: The Trailblazers Before Beau Greaves

 The rise of Beau Greaves has shone a fresh light on the women’s game, confident, clinical, and competing toe-to-toe with the men.

But before the Women’s Series, before Ally Pally walk-ons and TV slots, there were a handful of pioneering women who carried the game when no cameras were watching.

They’re rarely mentioned now, yet they set the stage for everything Beau and Fallon Sherrock enjoy today. Let’s meet five of the forgotten heroes of women’s darts.

 Gayl King – The Original Pioneer

Long before Fallon Sherrock made headlines, Gayl King quietly made history.

In 2001, the Canadian became the first woman ever to play in the PDC World Darts Championship, earning her place by winning the North American Cup.

She faced Graeme Stoddart at the Circus Tavern and lost 3-1 in sets, but the result barely mattered. King had proved that women belonged on the biggest stage.

Since then she’s slipped from public memory, yet her legacy remains: she walked so others could run.

Stacy Bromberg - The Forgotten World Champion

Known as 'The Wish Granter', Stacy Bromberg dominated American darts for nearly two decades.

She was U.S. No. 1 sixteen times, won countless national titles, and in 2010 lifted the only PDC Women’s World Championship ever staged, edging Tricia Wright 6–5 in a thriller.

The event was meant to spark a women’s circuit — but it never returned. Bromberg kept inspiring others until her passing in 2017.

A true champion, sadly without the spotlight her achievement deserved.

 Ann-Louise Peters - The Danish Flagbearer

In an era dominated by English and Dutch players, Ann-Louise Peters carried the flag for Scandinavia.

She reached the semi-finals of the 2014 BDO World Championship, helped Denmark win WDF Europe Cup team gold, and consistently mixed it with the best.

Quiet, classy, and determined, Peters proved that talent in women’s darts was global and not just British. She stepped away from the tour soon after, but her legacy lives on in every non-UK player who dreams big.

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Tricia Wright - The Nearly-Forgotten Finalist

If Stacy Bromberg was the champion, Tricia Wright was the other half of that 2010 story.

Wright pushed Bromberg to a deciding leg in the PDC Women’s World Championship final, and over her long BDO career collected titles across Europe.

She never quite became a household name, but her role in that historic final makes her part of darts history.

The 'forgotten finalist'  and a reminder of how small the women’s spotlight once was.

Francis Hoenselaar – The Jimmy White of Women’s Darts

If ever there was a Jimmy White of the women’s game, it’s Francis Hoenselaar.

For years she was runner-up to Trina Gulliver, finishing second six times at Lakeside before finally winning the BDO World Championship in 2009.

A six-time World Masters and five-time Zuiderduin Masters champion, she was stylish, consistent, and loved by fans.

Hoenselaar retired in 2011 after injury, but her perseverance remains a symbol of grace in defeat, and ultimate reward.

Closing Thoughts

Every era needs its pioneers. Before social media, before the glamour of the PDC stage, women like King, Bromberg, Peters, Wright, and Hoenselaar were carving out opportunities where none existed.

They may not trend on TikTok or walk out to a packed Ally Pally crowd, but they built the foundations of modern women’s darts.

Next time you watch Beau Greaves or Fallon Sherrock on TV, remember that their path was cleared by these unsung heroes.