Darts Champion To Enter PDC Q-School Despite Retiring As Over 850 Players Confirmed
A former BDO world champion - who retired from the PDC last year - is among over 850 confirmed entrants for the first stage of PDC Q-School.
The first stage gets underway on January 5, and lasts for three days.
The highest-placed players progress to the second and final stage, which takes place between January 8-11 and is where the new PDC tour card holders for 2026 are decided.
Anyone can enter the first stage, regardless of standing or darts ability, as long as they pay a fee of £475 and are over the age of 16.
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It attracts around 900 competitors every year across the UK and EU versions.
Players who lost their tour card at the end of 2025, and those who finished in the top 16 of the Challenge Tour and Development Tour, are exempt from the first stage and automatically qualify for the second stage.
The daily winner on each of the four days during the two second stages, which consist of 128 players each, earns an automatic tour card.
The top finishers on the Order of Merit also earn a tour card, though the exact number will not be known until the second stage gets underway. Nine UK entrants won cards last year, along with 12 EU entrants.
Over 350 entries to the first stage of UK Q-School have already been confirmed via the DartConnect website, as well as over 500 in the EU version.
Two-time PDC world champion John Part, 60, is among the headline names, while John Henderson, Richie Burnett and 2024 WDF world champion Shane McGuirk have also entered.
And Steve Beaton, who called time on his PDC career ahead of the 2025 World Championship, has decided to attempt a comeback after a year away.
'The Bronzed Adonis', who turns 61 this year, has played on the MODUS Super Series during 2025.
He won the BDO world crown in 1996, and has what has long been regarded as one of the smoothest throwing actions on the circuit.
Gemma Hayter and David Davies, who both played in the 2025 PDC World Championship, are among the other entrants.
According to The Sun, Fallon Sherrock has also signed up for Q-School.
Unlike in previous years, where she has entered the first stage, Sherrock has automatically qualified for the second stage as she was the highest-placed player on the Women's Series tour behind Beau Greaves, who has already earned a tour card.
Sherrock and Hayter, as well as Noa-Lynn van Leuven in EU Q-School, are aiming to become the third, fourth or fifth female players after Greaves and Lisa Ashton to hold a full-time PDC tour card.
Former tour card holders Jeffrey De Zwaan, Boris Krcmar and Jose Justicia, as well as 2025 WDF world champion Jimmy van Schie, are competing in the EU Q-School first stage.
Not all players competing in Q-School will have signed up with the sole aim of winning a tour card.
Every player who competes at Q-School is eligible for the 2026 PDC Challenge Tour - essentially the second-tier competition below the main ProTour.
Beaton told Online Darts last month: "If I was fortunate to go back and get a card, I wouldn't necessarily want to play all the time.
"What I'd want is to pick and choose. If I got a card for two years, maybe go to a third of them or fifty per cent of them, and still do exhibitions and slow it down that way.
"Even if I don't get a tour card, I could play on the Challenge Tour and things like that.
"If I've got a weekend free I can go and have a game with the lads."
Topics: Darts
Ryan Smart