Where Are the Toughest Places to Play Darts South of Birmingham? Q4QS Venue Rankings 2026

 

Over the past few weeks, I've been using the Q4QS Tournament Strength database to look at darts from a slightly different perspective.

I've compared the major tours.

I've looked at the toughest individual tournaments.

I've compared ADC Vaults with recognised international circuits.

Now I'm bringing things much closer to home.

Where are the toughest venues to regularly play darts south of Birmingham?

Not which venue has produced one spectacular tournament.

Not which has the biggest names or the largest prize fund.

But if you repeatedly turned up and entered tournaments at the same venue, where would you statistically be most likely to encounter a strong field?

This is the first version of the Q4QS venue rankings. My current database coverage is strongest across the southern half of Britain, so rather than pretend it represents every part of the country equally, this opening edition concentrates on venues south of Birmingham.

I'll be expanding the geographical coverage in the very near future as more tournaments and venues are added to the database.

First – What Does Tournament Strength Mean?

As always with this series, an important explanation comes first.

Tournament Strength is NOT a tournament average.

A venue with a Tournament Strength figure of 65 does not mean its players average 65.

The Q4QS Tournament Strength Score is a calculated field-strength measure incorporating factors such as player ratings, recorded performances and the overall quality of the players taking part.

In simple terms:

Tournament average tells us how players performed.

Tournament Strength attempts to tell us how difficult the field was.

For this particular analysis, I've taken that one stage further.

Rather than ranking a venue by the strongest tournament it has ever staged, I've looked at its results across multiple events.

A venue needed at least six qualifying tournament records in the database to make the main table.

That gives us a much better indication of where strong fields appear consistently.

Q4QS Toughest Darts Venues South of Birmingham – 2026 So Far

Rank	Venue	Events	Typical Strength	Peak
1	Lindsay Constitutional Club, Cefn Hengoed	17	65.20	73.44
2	The Sartan Club, Bishopsworth	23	64.89	69.26
3	North Star Club, Calne	25	64.77	67.86
4	Bridley Moor & Batchley Social Club, Redditch	14	64.54	68.31
5	Brynmawr Social Club, Brynmawr	28	64.35	67.85
6	Dorchester Trinity Club, Dorchester	20	64.05	68.51
7	Faringdon Football Club, Faringdon	37	63.74	68.59
8	The Academy, Basingstoke	7	63.60	66.37
9	Windmill Hill Golf Centre, Milton Keynes	21	63.53	66.43
10	The Banckers Draft, Minehead	12	63.51	67.55
11	Bradmoor Farm, Aylesbury	42	63.51	68.72
12	Frimley Green Working Men's Club	6	63.39	65.21
13	County Conservative Club, Cardiff	16	63.28	69.35
14	Woodbridge Hill Working Men's Club, Guildford	7	63.28	65.05
15	Bagley Sports & Social Club, Shrewsbury	20	63.25	66.96
16	Topsham Football Club	13	63.04	66.58
17	St Johns Club, Banbury	23	62.94	66.08
18	The Cue Corner, Worcester	7	62.94	66.55
19	Chalvey WMC, Slough	19	62.93	66.96
20	Phoenix Pub, Portsmouth	12	62.79	67.34

Typical Strength is the mean Q4QS Tournament Strength of the qualifying events currently recorded for that venue. This opening ranking focuses on venues south of Birmingham where the current Q4QS database has sufficient coverage. Figures are for 2026 so far and will change as further tournaments and regions are added.

Cefn Hengoed Takes Number One

Perhaps the first surprise is that the current number one isn't one of the venues that immediately springs to mind when talking about English grassroots darts.

It's in Wales.

Lindsay Constitutional Club in Cefn Hengoed leads the rankings with a typical Tournament Strength of 65.20 across 17 recorded events.

And this isn't simply the result of one huge night.

Its median Tournament Strength is also above 64, while its strongest recorded event reaches 73.44.

That's exactly what I wanted this ranking to identify.

Not somewhere that happened to attract one exceptional field.

Somewhere that repeatedly does it.

Sartan Confirms Its Reputation

Second place probably won't surprise many people who follow the South West darts scene.

The Sartan Club in Bishopsworth scores 64.89 across 23 tournaments.

What's particularly impressive is the consistency.

Its median score is almost identical to its overall figure, and its peak reaches 69.26.

That tells us Sartan isn't being pushed towards the top by one or two exceptional competitions.

Strong fields are simply normal there.

For players around Bristol, that's probably confirmation of something many already suspected.

If you turn up at Sartan, expect a difficult draw.

Calne Might Be the Most Impressive of All

Third-placed North Star Club in Calne is particularly interesting.

Its overall figure is 64.77, but its median is actually slightly higher at 65.22 across 25 tournaments.

That's significant.

It means the typical North Star event is consistently landing around the very top of this entire venue dataset.

Its peak of 67.86 isn't the highest in the rankings.

It doesn't need to be.

North Star's strength is consistency.

There appear to be very few easy nights.

Redditch and Brynmawr Complete the Top Five

Bridley Moor & Batchley Social Club in Redditch sits fourth at 64.54, followed by another Welsh venue, Brynmawr Social Club, at 64.35.

Brynmawr is particularly convincing because that figure comes from 28 recorded tournaments.

That's a sizeable sample.

Once a venue maintains a figure above 64 across that many competitions, it becomes increasingly difficult to dismiss it as a temporary spike.

Then Comes an Interesting Group

Dorchester, Faringdon, Basingstoke, Milton Keynes and Minehead complete the Top 10.

And there's something worth noticing here.

These aren't all venues concentrated in one recognised darts hotbed.

We're seeing strong tournament environments spread across Wales, the South West, the Midlands, the South Coast and the Home Counties.

That's one of the things I've enjoyed most about building this database.

Strong grassroots darts isn't confined to the places that receive the most publicity.

Faringdon and Bradmoor Deserve Special Mention

Sample size matters.

Faringdon Football Club ranks seventh with 37 recorded events.

Bradmoor Farm in Aylesbury ranks 11th with 42.

Those are two of the largest samples anywhere near the top of the ranking.

Maintaining Tournament Strength figures of 63.74 and 63.51 respectively across that many tournaments is arguably more impressive than reaching a slightly higher figure from six or seven events.

It suggests players attending those venues aren't occasionally encountering strong fields.

They're encountering them over and over again.

And What About Paignton?

This is where comparing peak strength with regular strength becomes fascinating.

In the previous ADC analysis, 8 Ball Bar & Sports in Paignton produced the strongest ordinary Vault event I'd found:

75.08.

That's still an exceptional result.

But across its 12 qualifying events in this analysis, Paignton's typical Tournament Strength is 62.64.

That puts it just outside this Top 20.

There is no contradiction.

It simply answers two different questions.

How strong can Paignton get?

Extremely strong.

Is every Paignton tournament played at that level?

No.

And that's precisely why looking at venues over a longer period gives us a different picture.

Peak Strength Still Matters

It would be wrong to completely ignore those exceptional nights.

Some venues outside the Top 10 have demonstrated how strong they can become when the right field assembles.

Among the notable peaks are:

Paignton – 75.08

Cefn Hengoed – 73.44

Cardiff – 69.35

Sartan Club – 69.26

Bradmoor Farm – 68.72

Faringdon – 68.59

Dorchester – 68.51

Those peaks tell us something different from the main ranking.

A venue's regular score tells us what you're likely to encounter.

Its peak tells us how difficult the room can become.

Both are useful.

Wales Is Producing Some Serious Fields

One of the clearest geographical stories in the rankings is Wales.

Cefn Hengoed is number one.

Brynmawr is fifth.

Cardiff is 13th.

That's three Welsh venues inside the Top 13.

Given how much attention English grassroots darts receives, that's worth highlighting.

The data suggests there are some extremely competitive regular tournament environments on the other side of the Severn.

The South West Is Very Much in the Picture

From my usual South West perspective, there is plenty here too.

Sartan is second.

Calne is third.

Minehead is tenth.

Topsham is 16th.

And immediately below the Top 20 are venues including Paignton, Yeovil and Gloucester.

So while Wales currently supplies the number-one venue, the South West has a very strong presence throughout the rankings.

And the numbers reinforce something I've seen repeatedly while covering darts in this region:

There is an enormous amount of quality operating well below the level that receives national attention.

Does This Mean Cefn Hengoed Is the Hardest Venue to Win At?

Not necessarily.

And that's an important distinction.

Tournament Strength measures the quality of the field.

It doesn't account for everything involved in actually winning a tournament.

A 16-player tournament and a 128-player tournament can have identical field-strength ratings but present very different challenges.

Format matters.

Number of entrants matters.

Match length matters.

Seeding matters.

The draw matters.

So this isn't intended to answer:

"Where is it mathematically hardest to lift a trophy?"

It's answering:

"Which regular venues are attracting the strongest fields?"

That's a subtly different – and I think equally interesting – question.

This Is Only the Beginning

There's another important caveat to these rankings.

This isn't yet intended as a definitive ranking of every darts venue in Britain.

The Q4QS database is growing all the time, and its geographical coverage isn't yet equal everywhere.

That's why I've deliberately started with venues south of Birmingham, where I have enough data to make meaningful comparisons.

I'll be expanding the coverage in the very near future.

As more regions and tournaments are added, we'll start to see whether these venues can hold their positions when they come up against the strongest rooms elsewhere.

And that should make the ranking even more interesting.

And What About My Own Regular Venues?

I was obviously curious to see how some of the venues I regularly cover and play at compared.

Hangar 61 in Patchway comes out particularly well. Across 42 recorded events, it has a typical Tournament Strength of 61.65, with its strongest tournament reaching an impressive 70.03. That leaves Hangar just outside the current Top 20, and there have been several particularly strong fields there recently.

DartAsylum HQ produces a very different number, averaging 53.22 across an enormous 132 recorded events, but that figure needs some context.

DartAsylum runs a huge variety of competitions, including Under-55, Sub-70, junior and other restricted events, so its overall venue figure is naturally pulled down by the type of tournaments it stages. When the stronger fields assemble, the numbers can be very different – DartAsylum's peak Tournament Strength this year is an excellent 73.33.

For me, it's a useful example of why the numbers need a little interpretation. These rankings measure the strength of the tournaments being staged at each venue, rather than rating the venue itself.

Final Thoughts

Looking only at the strongest individual tournament tells us where an exceptional field has assembled.

Looking across repeated tournaments tells us something more useful.

Where is strong darts normal?

Right now, among the venues south of Birmingham sufficiently represented in the Q4QS database, the answer is Cefn Hengoed.

But Sartan and North Star are extremely close.

Redditch, Brynmawr and Dorchester aren't far behind.

And venues such as Faringdon and Bradmoor Farm are producing strong numbers across dozens of competitions.

Perhaps most importantly, the difference between many of these venues is tiny.

A player looking for tough competitive darts doesn't need to enter a PDC event.

Across the southern half of Britain, there are plenty of clubs where strong fields are turning up week after week.

And as the Q4QS database expands, we'll find out just how those venues compare with the rest of the country.

Q4QS Weekly Spotlight: Three Players Who Caught My Eye This Week

 

Another seven days of grassroots darts produced plenty of candidates for the Weekly Spotlight, but this week’s final three stood out for very different reasons.

Louis Melville combined one of the week’s most important victories with another two tournament wins and a further final. Shaun Vernall continued an extraordinary run of consistency, winning three events and finishing the week by taking the £800 Gloucester Open. And Cody Sheppard produced an excellent sequence of results at Out Out Bar, culminating in a convincing Premier League Qualification victory.

As always, this isn’t simply about picking the three highest averages or the biggest names. It’s about the players whose performances, consistency or individual stories caught my eye over the previous seven days.

Louis Melville

Player Profile

Louis Melville has put together an outstanding record in the Q4QS database.

Across 243 recorded matches, Melville has won 215, giving him an excellent 88.5% win rate. From only 38 recorded events, he has already collected 22 tournament victories, alongside three runner-up finishes, four semi-finals and five quarter-finals.

His overall match average stands at 77.96, but his peak numbers show considerably more. His best recorded average is 111.33, with further performances of 107.36 and three separate 103.66 averages among his top five.

There is also plenty of quality in the opposition he has beaten. His best-rated recorded win is now against Dean Reynolds, while his record also includes several victories over Timothy Jones and a win over Creed Jenkins.

This Week

Melville began the week by winning the MODUS Super Series South Wales Regional Qualifier at Wattsville National Club, defeating Dean Reynolds 6–5 in the final.

That victory now also appears as the highest-rated win in his player profile, with Melville averaging 80.71 in the deciding match against Reynolds.

He followed it with another title at Olivers Sports Bar, winning the Vault 19 Open Warm Up. Melville produced two 91.09 averages during that tournament before beating Richie Limbert 3–1 in the final.

Then came another victory at the same venue in Friday’s ADC Open Ranking event.

This was arguably his best scoring performance of the week. Melville recorded 96.97, 92.02, 91.09 and 90.18 averages and completed the title with a 3–0 final victory over Liam Hughes.

Even then, the week wasn’t over. On Saturday he reached another final, defeating Ieuan Evans and Harry Morris in the knockout stages before losing 3–1 to Finley Bennett.

Three titles, including a MODUS regional qualifier, plus another final made Melville impossible to leave out this week.

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Shaun Vernall

Player Profile

Shaun Vernall continues to build one of the most impressive grassroots records in the database.

He has played 762 recorded matches, winning 636 of them for an 83.5% win rate across 117 events. Those appearances have produced 39 tournament victories, 22 runner-up finishes and another 43 quarter-final or semi-final appearances.

His overall match average stands at 76.92, while his last ten currently average 84.22. His ceiling is enormous: Vernall’s best recorded average is 128.71, with further peaks of 120.24, 112.63 and two 107.36 performances.

His list of significant victories includes Josh McCarthy, Neil Wild and Joe Quiney — with one win over Wild accompanied by a 98.40 average.

This Week

Vernall started his winning run at Widden Rugby Club, where he took the title after eight victories and produced a 93.94 average during the event.

He then added another tournament victory at Faringdon, once again defeating Rich Griffee in the final.

But the biggest performance was saved until Saturday.

The Gloucester Open featured 288 recorded matches, and Vernall came through the event with 20 victories recorded across the day before defeating Declan Cox 5–1 in the final.

His player profile gives an even clearer picture of the knockout run. Vernall beat James Mann and Archie McChristie with consecutive 96.97 averages, defeated Joe Bagguley 4–1 in the semi-final and then completed the title with a 5–1 victory over Cox.

It also left his latest recorded form at a perfect 10 wins from 10.

Vernall has featured before, but this series isn't about avoiding repeat names for the sake of it. Three titles in a week, capped by the Gloucester Open, demanded another appearance.

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Cody Sheppard

Player Profile

Cody Sheppard brings a completely different story to this week’s three.

His profile already contains a substantial 605 recorded matches, with 367 victories and a 60.7% win rate across 132 events. He has recorded 10 tournament victories, alongside 25 runner-up finishes, 15 semi-finals and 33 quarter-finals.

His overall match average is 55.48, but that number hides some very eye-catching peaks.

Sheppard’s best recorded average is a remarkable 112.78, while he has also produced a 100.20 and two 88.41 performances.

His record also contains wins against much higher-rated opposition, headed by Alec Small and Alfie O’Brien.

This Week

Sheppard’s week was built around a series of events at Out Out Bar.

He first won the NDC Open, beating Charlie Morgan 4–2 in the final.

There were then two further Premier League Qualification runs. On Wednesday he reached the final after beating Mason White and Archie Bourne, before Cody Vodden edged him 3–2.

Two days later, Sheppard turned that result around emphatically.

He beat Kenzie Thomas 5–3 in the semi-final and then defeated Vodden 6–1 in the final, averaging 67.75 to complete the tournament victory.

That was particularly notable after several close battles between the pair during the week, and it gave Sheppard a second tournament victory from a run that also contained multiple finals.

For a player still developing, that sort of repeated exposure to latter-stage matches can be every bit as interesting as one isolated big average.

Two tournament victories, multiple finals and a 6–1 win to finish the week earns Cody Sheppard his place in the Weekly Spotlight.

Worthington's Champion of Champions 2026 Preview: 256 Players, Two Legs to Win – and Almost Anything Can Happen

 

There are bigger tournaments in darts. There are richer tournaments. There are tournaments with considerably longer matches and far more television coverage.

But there can't be many quite like the Worthington's Champion of Champions, which takes place on Saturday 22nd August 2026

In Cardiff, 256 qualifiers will come together for one of grassroots darts' great annual shootouts. Every player has earned their place through a qualifying venue, there are no PDC Tour Card holders in the field, and eventually one player will emerge as the 2026 Champion of Champions.

The extraordinary part is how little time they have to prove themselves.

Every match is best of three legs.

First to two.

That's it.

You could arrive as one of the strongest players in the tournament, lose the bull, watch your opponent throw a 15-darter, miss one dart at double in the second leg and be packing the darts away a few minutes later.

Equally, you could arrive in Cardiff as one of the lesser-known qualifiers and genuinely believe you can beat anybody in the room.

That's what makes the Champion of Champions special.

And this year's provisional field looks absolutely fascinating.

From Price and Clayton to the Grassroots Stars of Today

Red Dragon relaunched the Champion of Champions in 2014 and its roll of honour tells you plenty about the quality required to win it.

Steve Degville won the first edition in 2014 before Gerwyn Price took the title in 2015. Jonny Clayton followed in 2016, Paul Hogan in 2017 and Ryan Searle in 2018.

Jim Williams became champion in 2019 before the competition's interruption, with Alec Small winning in 2022, Kurt Parry in 2023, Nick Kenny in 2024 and David Davies becoming the latest champion in 2025.

It's quite a list.

Price, Clayton and Searle subsequently became established names at the highest level of professional darts, while Williams and Kenny have also competed extensively within the PDC system.

But perhaps the most remarkable statistic is this:

Nobody has ever won it twice.

Ten completed tournaments. Ten different champions.

And there is another sequence on the line in Cardiff.

The last five completed editions have all produced Welsh champions: Jim Williams, Alec Small, Kurt Parry, Nick Kenny and David Davies.

Can Wales make it six?

With the tournament being staged in Cardiff and another huge Welsh contingent expected, there is every reason to think it can.

But in this format, expecting anything is dangerous.

The Modern News of the World?

The Champion of Champions is sometimes compared to the old News of the World Championship and it's easy to understand why.

Short-format darts creates a completely different test.

In a best-of-11 or best-of-19 match, the stronger player has time to recover from a poor leg. Over best of three, there is almost no margin for error.

One leg against throw can effectively decide the match.

One missed double can decide the match.

One 12 or 15-dart burst can decide the match.

Even winning the bull could become hugely significant.

To win a 256-player straight knockout tournament requires eight victories.

Eight best-of-three matches.

That potentially means a player could become Champion of Champions by winning just 16 legs of darts.

Of course, actually doing it is anything but easy.

You have to repeatedly deal with the pressure of knowing there is virtually no recovery time. You have to find doubles immediately. And you need to survive the inevitable match where your opponent suddenly produces their best darts of the day.

That's why simply looking at the rankings won't tell us who is going to win.

But they can tell us who arrives with a particularly interesting chance.

Stevenson Sets the Statistical Standard

Of the provisional qualifiers I've been able to match against the Q4QS database, Simon Stevenson is the highest-ranked player.

Stevenson sits at No.62 in the database with an overall average of 88.47 and has won seven of his last ten recorded matches.

More importantly, the numbers show the level he's capable of producing.

He won the Legends Darts Lounge UK Open Grand Final Qualifier with a 92.31 tournament average and has recorded notable victories in the database including a 98.82 average against John Mann. His recent Challenge Tour appearances also include a Last 64 run at Event 18 where he averaged 92.44 across the event.

In a conventional tournament, Stevenson would be one of the obvious favourites.

He still is here.

But Champion of Champions favourites come with a very large warning label.

Jim Williams Could Become the First Two-Time Champion

If history is the theme, Jim Williams might have the biggest story of all.

The 2019 champion is back and attempting to do something nobody has managed before.

Win it twice.

Williams remains one of the highest-quality players in the provisional field. He is ranked 209 in the Q4QS database but averages 87.17 overall, while his recent results demonstrate that his scoring remains extremely dangerous.

He reached a Vault final at Shooters Bar in Leominster with a 92.55 event average and has subsequently produced Challenge Tour event averages around the 89 mark.

There are players ranked above Williams in this field.

There aren't many I'd particularly want to draw against him in a first-to-two shootout.

If Williams wins, he doesn't merely take the 2026 title.

He breaks one of the tournament's great traditions.

Paul Hogan Is Flying

Then there is the 2017 champion.

Paul Hogan might sit only 471st in the current Q4QS rankings, but that ranking seriously understates the form in which he arrives.

His database record reads:

Last 10: 10 wins, 0 defeats.

Hogan recently won at the Wolversdene Club in Andover with an 87.02 event average and has been collecting titles and deep runs consistently. His recent five-event sequence includes three victories, another win at Burghfield and a semi-final.

Experience also counts for something in a format like this.

Hogan knows how to win the Champion of Champions because he's already done it.

Nine years later, could he become its first repeat winner?

On current form, it certainly isn't an outrageous suggestion.

Alec Small and Kurt Parry Chase History Too

Two more former champions arrive with outstanding recent numbers.

Alec Small, champion in 2022, is another player showing 10 wins from his last ten recorded matches.

His recent Vault results include an 88.04 winning average at the National Club in Wattsville, while his database numbers show repeated tournament victories rather than one isolated good performance.

Then comes 2023 champion Kurt Parry.

Parry has won nine of his last ten, recently won a Vault at Duffy's in Pontypridd and then reached another final at the Mile End Inn while averaging 86.48.

His overall Q4QS average of 81.61 doesn't put him alongside Stevenson and Williams for pure scoring, but that's precisely where this tournament becomes interesting.

Parry doesn't need to average 90 for eight matches.

He needs to win two legs at a time.

And he has already demonstrated that he knows exactly how to do that on Champion of Champions day.

What About the Defending Champion?

David Davies is another fascinating inclusion on the provisional qualifier list.

The defending champion has the opportunity to become the first player ever to successfully retain the title.

His wider database numbers aren't as eye-catching as some of the headline contenders, but that hardly matters when discussing a player who proved only 12 months ago that he can navigate this unique format.

There is no gradual settling into the Champion of Champions.

The defending champion gets exactly the same two-leg target as everyone else.

Survive, and move on.

The Q4QS Top 20

Among the provisional qualifiers matched to the Q4QS database, the leading 20 are:

#	Player	Q4QS Rank
1	Simon Stevenson	62
2	Keenan Thomas	105
3	Neil Wild	136
4	Graham Usher	137
5	Jim Williams	209
6	Chas Barstow	241
7	Johnny Haines	307
8	Dean Reynolds	324
9	Jamie Kelling	360
10	Martin Thomas	417
11	Stephen Cake	423
12	Paul Hogan	471
13	Mike Huntley	516
14	Chris Hurds	518
15	William Thomas	547
16	Jason Collins	568
17	Matt Dennant	654
18	Clive Langford	671
19	Nigel Prior	685
20	Alec Small	691

That list itself demonstrates the depth.

Keenan Thomas has recently won a Vault event with an 86.29 average and has Challenge Tour experience. Graham Usher carries an 85.12 overall average and has been playing both Challenge Tour and ADC competition.
Chas Barstow has an 86.10 overall average, while Johnny Haines has won nine of his last ten and recently produced a 90.85 event average in a Vault victory.

And that's before we reach some of the most interesting form players in the entire tournament.

The Dangerous Outsiders

If you're looking for players capable of wrecking the predictions, Neil Wild immediately stands out.

Wild is 9-1 across his last ten matches in the database and has produced some extraordinary scoring. One recent tournament victory came with a 104.63 event average, including recorded match averages of 119.55, 104.51 and 100.31.

If anything approaching that Neil Wild turns up in Cardiff, nobody will want to see his name beside theirs.

Matt Dennant comes in at 9-1 and has been accumulating Vault titles. His recent results include multiple tournament victories and a recorded 104.86 match average.

Bryan Flew is another name I like in this format. He's 8-2 across his last ten and recently produced winning event averages of 88.39, 84.61 and 85.52 across a run of strong Vault performances.

Stephen Cake is in excellent form too. Cake is 8-2, recently won at the Junction Inn with an 85.15 average and has followed that with further titles and a final.

Mike Huntley brings a 9-1 recent record, while Alec McCready has the same last-ten record and has been collecting titles around Hereford and Leominster.
And don't overlook Gavin Sterio, also 9-1, or Dean Reynolds, whose recent 9-1 run includes victory at the Towy Sports Bar Open.
In a best-of-three tournament, those are exactly the sort of players who can suddenly find themselves five or six rounds deep.

Players to Watch

There are stories much further down the field as well.

Robbie Long's recent results include a nine-win unbeaten tournament at Hangar 61, while his database contains a 96.39 match average amongst his notable performances.

William Thomas deserves attention after winning all ten of his most recently recorded matches. His recent results include a tournament win, another final and a semi-final run at the Towy Sports Bar Open.

Kai Clark has Development Tour experience alongside strong grassroots results and is 8-2 in his last ten.

Clive Langford has also been winning, including success at the Out Out Bar UK Open Grand Finals, and has seven victories from his last ten recorded matches.

There will undoubtedly be others.

That's an important point with a tournament like this. Rankings tell us about what players have already achieved in the events captured by the database. They don't guarantee what happens when two players stand eight feet from a dartboard and race to two legs.

Can Wales Make It Six?

The Welsh dominance is difficult to ignore.

Five consecutive completed editions have been won by Welsh players.

The provisional field again contains enormous Welsh representation, including former champions Williams, Small, Parry and Davies alongside players such as Cake, Huntley, Flew, Sterio and a long list of dangerous qualifiers from across the country.

Home advantage doesn't guarantee anything.

But the sheer depth of Welsh grassroots darts means it would be no surprise whatsoever if the trophy remained in Wales.

The intriguing alternative is whether somebody from outside Wales can finally break the sequence.

Stevenson has the highest Q4QS ranking among the provisional qualifiers. Wild's recent numbers are frightening. Usher, Barstow, Haines, Hogan, Evans and Dennant provide serious opposition.

Wales may have the numbers.

It certainly doesn't have a monopoly on contenders.

Two Legs From Disaster – Eight Matches From Glory

That's ultimately why I love the Champion of Champions concept.

Imagine being the best player in a 256-player tournament and knowing that none of it matters if your opponent throws two brilliant legs.

Imagine being ranked well outside the leading contenders and knowing exactly the same thing works in your favour.

You don't have to beat Simon Stevenson over 19 legs.

You don't have to outscore Jim Williams for an hour.

You don't have to match Neil Wild's best tournament averages across an entire afternoon.

You have to beat whoever stands in front of you twice.

Then do it again.

And again.

Eight matches later, you're Champion of Champions.

The format creates jeopardy from the opening dart. It rewards nerve, doubling and the ability to produce your best darts immediately. There is almost no opportunity to play your way into a match.

That makes predicting a winner extraordinarily difficult.

But if I were building a shortlist from the provisional field and current Q4QS data, Simon Stevenson and Jim Williams have to be among the headline names, while the current form of Neil Wild, Paul Hogan, Johnny Haines, Alec Small, Kurt Parry, Lee Evans and Matt Dennant makes all of them extremely interesting.

Then there are another 200-plus players perfectly capable of making that prediction look ridiculous.

And that's the point.

The Red Dragon Champion of Champions has produced future PDC stars, established champions and grassroots heroes.

It has never produced a two-time winner.

Wales has won the last five.

And somewhere in Cardiff, among 256 qualifiers, there may be a player almost nobody is talking about who is only 16 winning legs away from becoming the 2026 champion.

In most major darts tournaments, saying almost anyone can win is a cliché.

At the Champion of Champions, it might actually be true.

Q4QS Weekly Spotlight - week ending 9th August 2026

 

Three Players Who Caught My Eye This Week

Another busy seven days of grassroots darts has produced plenty of performances worthy of attention, but this week's three selections stood out for very different reasons.

Shaun Vernall enjoyed a remarkable run of tournament success across the South West, Kieran Spurdle put together one of the most consistent weeks on the Somerset circuit, while Llew Bevan combined multiple titles with some genuinely outstanding scoring.

As always, this isn't simply a list of the week's highest averages. The idea is to highlight players whose overall performances caught my eye — whether through winning, consistency, improvement or producing something exceptional when it mattered.

Here are this week's three.

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Shaun Vernall

Player Profile

Shaun Vernall's record shows just how consistently he has performed across the grassroots circuit. Across 671 recorded matches, Vernall has collected 554 victories, an excellent 82.6% win rate, while competing in more than 100 events. His record includes 30 tournament victories, another 21 runner-up finishes and 15 semi-finals.

His overall average of 77.03 is backed up by a virtually identical Q4QS average of 77.11, suggesting a player whose level remains remarkably stable across a very large sample of matches. He has also shown a much higher ceiling, with a best recorded average of 128.71 and several other performances well above the 100 mark.

Vernall has also beaten some significant opposition, including Josh McCarthy, Neil Wild, Ashton Brown and Joe Quiney, demonstrating that his success is not confined to smaller local fields.

This Week

Few players could match Shaun Vernall for sheer volume of success this week.

He won at Matson Rugby Club in Gloucester, where eight match victories took him to the Vault 18 title, and also collected another Sunday title at The Nags Head in Cinderford.

The winning continued at Evesham, where Vernall produced one of his biggest individual performances of the week — a superb 107.36 average — before another title followed at Saintbridge Sports Club in Gloucester on Friday. There he defeated Andy Hammond and Will Jackson before edging Joe Bagguley 3–2 in the final.

Vernall then reached the quarter-finals of the Doc Neale Memorial, defeating Jamie Harvey, Paul Akers and Leslie Higgs before losing 5–3 to eventual finalist Harry Williams while still averaging 84.07.

It wasn't one spectacular night that earned Vernall his place this week — it was the relentless frequency with which his name kept appearing near the top of the results.

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Kieran Spurdle

Player Profile

Kieran Spurdle has compiled an impressive record across the South West circuit, winning 127 of his 167 recorded matches for a 76% win rate. His 30 events have already produced seven titles, six runner-up finishes and five semi-finals.

Spurdle's overall average currently stands at 72.56, with a Q4QS average of 73.06 and a best recorded performance of 91.09. His results also show experience beyond the local circuit, including victories over Dylan Dowling at Q School, Gary Jackson at the UKDA National Finals and Frankie Ansell on another Q School run.

Recent form is particularly strong, with nine wins from his last ten recorded matches.

This Week

Spurdle's week was a perfect example of why this feature isn't simply about picking somebody who happened to win on Saturday.

He started by taking the Vault 18 title at The Choughs Hotel in Chard, beating Daren Field 3–0 in the final with an 88.41 average.

Two days later he was back at the business end of another tournament at the Pawlett Pavilion Grand Prix. Spurdle produced a 91.09 average against Chris Tuck, followed by victories over Dan Saunders and James Harland, before eventually finishing runner-up to Craig Difford.

Then came Friday at Pegasus 68 in Taunton.

Spurdle again reached the final, beating Dave Dawson and Nigel Wills before defeating Leighton Cox 3–1 to collect another title.

So his week reads: winner, finalist, winner.

That's exactly the sort of sustained performance that deserves a Weekly Spotlight.

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Llew Bevan

Player Profile

Llew Bevan's database sample is considerably smaller than the other two, but the numbers are exceptional.

Across 71 recorded matches, Bevan has won 62 for an 87.3% win rate, while already collecting five tournament victories from 15 events.

Perhaps even more striking is his scoring level. Bevan carries an 88.16 overall average and 88.32 Q4QS average, with his last ten matches averaging 90.56. His best recorded performance now stands at a huge 115.62.

His results against quality opposition add further context. Bevan has recorded victories over Lewis Pride, Graham Usher, Danny Trueman and Archie Self, while also competing at Q School and on the Challenge Tour.

This Week

Bevan began his week by winning the Vault 18 event at Glanyrafon Arms in Llandysul.

His run included averages of 91.09, 104.86 and 95.94, with the latter coming in a convincing 3–0 final victory over Sion Thomas.

He followed that with another title at Towy Sports Bar in Carmarthen, beating Gareth Earles and Kelvin O'Keefe before completing the tournament with a 3–0 final victory.

But Saturday provided the week's headline performance.

At Terry Griffiths Matchroom in Llanelli, Bevan produced a stunning 115.62 average against Finlay Andrews. He later added 91.09 against Ceri Cook, 100.20 against Adrian Davies and 98.02 against Oscar Bourne, before defeating Justin Hughes 3–0 in the final.

Three titles would have been enough to make Bevan a serious contender for this feature.

Three titles accompanied by 104, 100 and 115 averages make his selection virtually unavoidable.

Special Mention – Winmau Tour Championship Weekend (Saturday)

The Weekly Spotlight selections have deliberately been kept separate from the ADC and WADC Winmau Tour Championship weekend at Bradmoor Farm, simply because those major events could easily dominate the feature on their own.

There were plenty of performances deserving recognition, including Ashley Coleman winning ADC Event 10 after eight victories and Gemma Hayter taking WADC Event 5, beating Vicky Pruim 5–4 in the final and producing a 95.43 average during her run.