23 years on from his last entry, John Part returns to the WDF World Masters

'Darth Maple' made that jump in 1998, reaching his first PDC Worlds final in 2001, losing to Phil Taylor. He would have to wait two years before he could make his revenge, and did it in sublime fashion. He won 7-6 to dethrone Taylor, leading legendary commentator Sid Waddell to say it was 'the greatest game ever seen by Sky'. Before that triumph, he had made three major ranking finals, losing in all of them. Another trio of runner-up trophies came and passed before he claimed his second Worlds title, comfortably defeating Kirk Shepard in the final.

His career started to slowly deplete from here. His third and final appearance in the Premier League was in 2009, and apart from a few quarter-finals, he failed to replicate the eye-catching form that propelled him to world number one in the early 2000s.

After losing his tour card in 2019, Part has competed in the now halted World Senior Darts Tour, where he has found mixed success. Not being able to replicate the sort of runs he had completed in previous years, he managed to reach the quarter-finals of the World Senior Masters. With the tour coming to an abrupt ending, he now sets his sights back to the WDF, an almost full-circle moment after starting his career in the BDO World Masters back in 1993. He will be hoping to go on a deep run, with his best coming back in 1995 and 1997, when he got to the fourth round.

He will be a part of a tournament with much prestige and history. First held back in 1974, the likes of Eric Bristow, John Lowe, Raymond van Barneveld, and Taylor have succeeded in lifting the trophy. The tournament was postponed in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and cancelled in 2023 due to a lack of participations. In last years event held in Budapest, Wesley Plaiser and Beau Greaves stormed to victory in their respected events, with both retaining their titles they picked up in 2022. The 2025 event will again be hosted at the Gerevich Aladár National Sports Hall, from 29 October – 1 November 2025.