Darts Star Slams 'Shambles' And Says He'll 'Probably' Refuse to Play PDC Event
Darts star Chris Dobey has declared that he may refuse to play certain ProTour tournaments his season after an incident before the first Players Championship event of 2026.
The first PC event is taking place in Hildesheim, Germany on Monday.
Luke Littler, Luke Humphries, Josh Rock, Stephen Bunting and Jonny Clayton are all notable absentees, and have been replaced by the five highest-ranked players on the PDC Challenge Tour.
Dobey did make the trip to Germany, and defeated Tom Bissell 6-3 in his first round match.
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The Northumberland-born dartist, however, didn't make it beyond the last 64 stage after suffering a 6-4 loss to Scotland's Greg Ritchie.
Given Players Championship events are held in blocks of two days, Dobey will also compete in PC2 on Tuesday before returning home.
But after touching down in Hildesheim, 'Hollywood' took to Twitter to complain that his darts - and indeed his entire luggage - had gone missing.
"First flight of the year done and same result no f***ing luggage," he wrote.
"There's a reason I didn't bother doing any of these last year. Probs be my last this year. @KLM shambles again!"
A number of darts players have questioned why ProTour events are played in Germany, citing the location and cost of travelling involved.
Clayton said in November that 'I don't think we should have them there', while Joe Cullen wrote on Twitter in 2024: "Germany is a huge market and an amazing place to play darts (with a crowd). I can't see the value in having pro tours there as there's no ticket sales?!?!"
The majority of the 128 PDC tour card holders are either English or based in England, though there is a steadily increasing number of players from European countries now on the tour as well.
A total of 15 German players entered PC1, including world number 15 Martin Schindler.
Schindler had a disastrous start to his ProTour season as he averaged just 65 in a 6-0 whitewash defeat to Maik Kuivenhoven in round one.
Lukas Wenig, Gabriel Clemens and Max Hopp, however, have all made it through to the third round.
There are also 19 Dutch players competing in Hildesheim, including Michael van Gerwen, Gian van Veen and Raymond van Barneveld.
Topics: Darts
Ryan Smart