Winmau World Masters 29th Jan - 2nd Feb

KevIRL

Winmau World Masters draw, this is a ranking event this year unlike previous years which saw just the top 16 or top 24 be invited. Alongside the top 24 ranked will be 8 qualifiers from a qualifying tournament next Wednesday 29th. Entrants to the qualifying tournament include all other card holders plus highly ranked players from Challenge and Development Tours, Womens Series, ADC rankings and regional PDC rankings from 2024. The tournament including qualifying will be sets not legs, although each set is best of 3 rather than best of 5. Main tournament runs from Thur 30th-Sun 2nd Feb. A big event for players because no one is defending any money, so money earned will essentially be a bonus onto rankings

2025 Winmau World Masters
Draw Bracket

(1) Luke Humphries v Joe Cullen

(16) Josh Rock v Qualifier 6

(8) Damon Heta v Ross Smith

(9) Gerwyn Price v Qualifier 4

(4) Rob Cross v Qualifier 8

(13) Danny Noppert v Michael Smith

(5) Stephen Bunting v Qualifier 5

(12) Peter Wright v Qualifier 1

(2) Luke Littler v Qualifier 3

(15) James Wade v Mike De Decker

(7) Jonny Clayton v Martin Schindler

(10) Chris Dobey v Ryan Searle

(3) Michael van Gerwen v Qualifier 2

(14) Gary Anderson v Dimitri Van den Bergh

(6) Dave Chisnall v Qualifier 7

(11) Nathan Aspinall v Andrew Gilding

Session Schedule
Wednesday January 29
Preliminary Rounds

Thursday January 30 (1900 GMT)
First Round x8 - Match Schedule TBC
Luke Humphries v Joe Cullen
Josh Rock v Qualifier 6
Damon Heta v Ross Smith
Gerwyn Price v Qualifier 4
Rob Cross v Qualifier 8
Danny Noppert v Michael Smith
Stephen Bunting v Qualifier 5
Peter Wright v Qualifier 1

Friday January 31 (1900 GMT)
First Round x8 - Match Schedule TBC

Luke Littler v Qualifier 3

James Wade v Mike De Decker

Jonny Clayton v Martin Schindler

Chris Dobey v Ryan Searle

Michael van Gerwen v Qualifier 2

Gary Anderson v Dimitri Van den Bergh

Dave Chisnall v Qualifier 7

Nathan Aspinall v Andrew Gilding

KevIRL

The Preliminary rounds acting as a qualifier for the TV stages will have 2 boards streamed on pdc.tv. Players ranked 25th-56th on the OoM start at the last 64 stage and they will be joined by 32 qualifiers coming from the group stage. Group stage contains the remaining tour card holders, top 8 from 2024 challenge tour not already in the event, top 8 from 2024 development tour not already in the event, top 8 from womens series 2024, top from the Asian, Nordic, CDC and Australian tours and the top 4 from the ADC rankings.

Mickey Mansell, Keane Barry and Willie O Connor will start at the last 64 stage

Dylan Slevin, Steve Lennon, Dylan Dowling and Robyn Byrne will start at the group stage.

Kingp35

Looking forward to this tournament as it's a fresh idea. It's also great to have one less non-ranking tournament on the calendar.

KevIRL

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123085122#Comment_123085122

Yeah agree completely. The qualifying day is going to be very interesting. If I was to make a change to this it would be to only have the top 16 qualify automatically and double the amount of qualifer slots from the prelims.

I'd actually top 8 as the top 16 are getting seeded in everything now, thats more of an issue to resolve with the Euro Tours than these TV ranking tournaments though imo

KevIRL

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123083619#Comment_123083619

Aidan O Hara joins the Irish contingent for this according to Wikipedia as one of the four JDC qualifiers

KevIRL

Barney among 6 tour card holders who have not entered, this has bumped Dylan Slevin up a place in the qualifiers and as a result he wont have to play the preliminary round group stage.

Beau Greaves has also not entered which is a surprise

Turns out Dylan Dowling is not on the Dev Tour 2024 top 8 ranking players for this

KevIRL

A lot of eligible players have declined to enter the preliminary round stage

TC holders - 7

Nordic/Baltic Tour - 5

Asian Tour - 5

CDC Tour - 4

Australian Tour - 5

NZ Tour - 7

Dev Tour - 5

Challenge Tour - 2

Womens Series - 3

JDC - 0

Whatever about the overseas tours, at a minimum they should have offered the spots to the players lower in the rankings. As things stand the group stage of the preliminary stage will have 31 groups of 3 players and 1 group of 4 players

KevIRL

MvG wont be in green for this event

https://x.com/Winmau/status/1884239020257075327

KevIRL

Irish player groups

Group AA - Robyn Byrne, Joshua Richardson, Jacob Womack

Group AP - Aidan O Hara, Andy Boulton, Lukas Wenig

Group AR - Steve Lennon, Jimmy van Schie, Adam Paxton

Really tough group for Lennon. Winners of each group only progress.

KevIRL

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123111927#Comment_123111927

Steve Lennon loses his two group games 2-0 and is out

Robyn Byrne also with two 2-0 defeats

Aidan O Hara picked up a set against Boulton but loses that 2-1 and the other 2-0

testtech05

Where can I watch the competition?

KevIRL

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123112144#Comment_123112144

pdc.tv streaming two of the boards today in the qualifiers, have to have a membership there though. The competition proper is being screen on ITV4 from tomorrow evening

testtech05

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123112288#Comment_123112288

Thanks a million will be able to watch from tomorrow then great!!

KevIRL

L64 draws for Irish players

Dylan Slevin v Ryan Branley

Keane Barry v Thibault Tricole

Mickey Mansell v Brett Claydon

Willie O Connor v Danny Lauby

Top 8 qualify so 3 wins required.

KevIRL

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123112566#Comment_123112566

All four through to last 32 stage

KevIRL

Gurney, mansell and slevin through to last 16 and one win away from tournament proper.

Keane Barry out

KevIRL

Kevin Doets beats Dylan Slevin at last 16 stage to go through to main competition

Willie O'Connor through beating Richard veenstra

Mansell beaten by Willie borland

KevIRL

Winmau world masters 8 qualifiers from today are - William O'Connor, Kevin Doets, Jermaine Wattimena, Bradley Brooks, Andy Beatens, Florian Hempel, Cameron Menzies, Willie borland

KevIRL

Schedule for first two nights

KevIRL

Belter of an opening match between rock and Wattimena

KevIRL

Time for Heta to ditch the stupid hat. Dimitri has already ditched the stupid dance and changed his walk on song

KevIRL

2 match darts gone for WOC but then takes out 151 to beat rob cross

hawkwing

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123118098#Comment_123118098

Looked like he had blown it but kept the head for a change

KevIRL

10K in the bag for Willie this week and eases a lot of concerns about getting dragged into a tour card battle. Not safe yet but a great start

https://www.dartsrankings.com/postwch

KevIRL

Bunting comes back from 2-0 down to beat Willie Borland 3-2

KevIRL

Noppert beats Michael smith in the last game of the night. His winning darts greeted with complete silence from the crowd

Deeper Blue

Smith has released a statement after the game tonight saying he's suffering from arthritis in his hand and has had shoulder issues for months hence his poor form. Doesn't sound great for him in terms of getting back to where he was in the game.

testtech05

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123118936#Comment_123118936

I noticed he was only interacting with fans and refs etc with his left hand all night, must be related to the shoulder issue. Hopefully he can recover

RebelButtMunch

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123118146#Comment_123118146

I was rooting for him. Seems like a likeable underdog.

KevIRL

Wade beats de decker 3-2 in the opener. Great match.

KevIRL

Just the 112.77 average for Clayton to beat Schindler