Luke Littler will not be in Minehead in November. Not yet, anyway. Having missed both tournaments in Den Bosch on 28 and 29 October, the reigning Players Championship Finals champion has missed out on his last two good opportunities to climb back up the ProTour Order of Merit. He has two days left, in Leicester, to avoid having to watch his own tournament on television.
Den Bosch without the defending champion
The line-up for Players Championships 31 and 32, published by the PDC, already did without him, as well as Luke Humphries and Gerwyn Price. Two tournaments in a row at Maaspoort, with a combined prize fund of £150,000, and a golden opportunity for players ranked around 60th to secure some prize money before the cut. Charlie Manby clinched his first PDC title there, with a ticket to the Grand Slam of Darts as a bonus. Littler, for his part, stayed at home, a conscious choice following an already very busy season in terms of the schedule.
126th on the ProTour: a rising cut
The problem is nothing new. In early October, Sky Sports put his position at 126th in the ProTour Order of Merit with 10,500 pounds, whilst Mike De Decker occupied 64th place, the final qualifying spot, with 29,250 pounds. The final cut-off was projected to be over 30,000 pounds. Since then, two tournaments have been added in Den Bosch, so the threshold will rise even further. Only the top 64 in the ProTour Order of Merit, calculated based on floor tournaments and the European Tour, secure their place in Somerset.
Two days in Leicester to turn everything around
There are exactly two events remaining: Players Championships 33 and 34, on 4 and 5 November in Leicester. To overtake De Decker and the queue of players ahead of him, he would need to win around 25,000 pounds in 48 hours, in other words, reach two finals. A win, worth 15,000 pounds, plus another final, worth 10,000 pounds, would take him to 35,500 pounds, which should be enough in most scenarios. A single title would not be enough: 25,500 pounds would leave him in a grey area. Sky Sports, as early as 9 October, estimated that he would need to reach the final of at least one of the two tournaments, and probably both.
A clean sweep already achieved
Littler’s season had taken on a whole new dimension. Six major titles in a calendar year, from the World Championship at Alexandra Palace to the World Matchplay in Blackpool, via the World Masters, the UK Open, the Premier League and the World Cup with Luke Humphries. A clean sweep of the 2026 televised tournaments was still on the cards before the autumn.
Then the machine ground to a halt. A 10-4 quarter-final defeat to Jonny Clayton at the World Series of Darts Finals in Amsterdam, a first-round exit from the World Grand Prix against Luke Woodhouse, and a semi-final defeat in the World Youth Championship against Cam Crabtree. A clean sweep is no longer on the cards, and qualifying for Minehead has become the final tangible goal of his end-of-season campaign on the floor darts circuit.
The Grand Slam won’t save him
Littler will be in Wolverhampton from 14 to 22 November to defend his title at the Grand Slam of Darts, a tournament he won in both 2024 and 2025. But this tournament, prestigious as it may be, does not count towards the ProTour Order of Merit. His qualification for Minehead will therefore not depend on it, and he will have to secure it beforehand, over two days of a packed draw in Leicester.
A ProTour more open than ever
The 2026 season has shown just how much the floor circuit can serve as a springboard. Henry Coates, aged 20 and without a Tour Card, won in Hildesheim; Karel Sedlacek became the first Czech player to claim a ProTour title in Den Bosch in September; Sebastian Bialecki followed suit in the same city; and Charlie Manby claimed his maiden victory this week. In other words, the prize money up for grabs on 4 and 5 November won’t be left to the absent favourites.
Minehead, 27,29 November
The 2026 Players Championship Finals will take place from 27 to 29 November at Butlins, Minehead, with a prize fund of £750,000 and £130,000 for the winner. A special feature of the weekend is that the World Youth Championship final will be played there on Sunday 29 November. Last year, Littler beat Nathan Aspinall 11,8 in the final to lift the trophy. This year, he may find himself merely a spectator.
What remains to be done
Two titles or two finals in two days, in a format where losing even a single match in the first round costs £1,250 and a return trip for nothing. The margin is slim, but it still exists. The real question isn’t about the maths: it’s whether Littler fancies two days of the ProTour in Leicester a week before the Grand Slam. His decision, rather than his ranking, will determine whether he’s in Minehead.
